This is one in a series of articles authored by middle school students in Cumberland County that details their research into historical figures in the county. Part one was published in November.
Five years ago, only one of Cumberland County’s state lawmakers who were previously enslaved or a free African American before the Civil War was mentioned on a Virginia historical roadside marker. Later this school year, all four historic figures will be named on Virginia historical roadside markers. During the 2023 Cumberland Middle School summer school session, a group of rising ninth graders collaboratively wrote a story map detailing the contributions of State Senator John (Lipscomb) Robinson. The next school year, students summarized the story map for the text on the Virginia Historic Roadside Marker Application. Last spring, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources formally approved the following historic marker text and location.
John Robinson (born John Lipscomb), a free person of color from Cumberland County, was a wagoner and landowner before the Civil War. Twice attacked by white men in 1864, he fled to Amelia County and later used the local courts to convict many of his attackers and defend his property rights. An active Republican during Reconstruction, he was one of 24 African Americans elected to serve in Virginia’s Constitutional Convention of 1867-68, where he voted with radical reformers. As a state senator (1869-73), he helped set up Virginia’s new public school system and voted to ratify the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. For 30 years he owned and operated the Effingham House tavern near here.
Sponsor: Cumberland Middle School
Locality: Cumberland County
Proposed Location: Anderson Highway, Cumberland
Current seventh grade U.S. History II students recently completed source presentations at sites relevant to John Robinson and other individuals who were politically active in the area during the late nineteenth century. One of the visits was to the Hillsman House, where Robert R. Moton resided as a young child. Robert R. Moton was politically active as a first-year educator with Cumberland County Public Schools. As our bus approached the entrance of the Sailor’s Creek Battlefield State Park, Mrs. Kailey Newton, the bus driver, spotted smoke. Mrs. Newton, Mr. Michael Reid and a few students alerted park staff when we reached the visitor’s center. State park staff contacted the proper authorities and fire departments were deployed from four different localities. The four-acre brush fire was extinguished before it reached Sailor’s Creek Battlefield State Park property.
Seventh grade history enrichment students are currently planning the John (Lipscomb) Robinson Historical Roadside Marker unveiling. They recently wrote the text for a two-part John Robinson story map series. The portion of the article below is a summary of the second part of the series. The Life and Legacy of John (Lipscomb) Robinson: Top 5 Accomplishments and Unique Events of his Lifetime was collaboratively written by Maria Martinez-Owens, Scarlette Gibbs, Peyton Bryant, Aubrey Wise, Mattie Layne, Bailey Spillman, Peyton Scott, Aurian Bolden, Blakely Elder, Nevaeh Fernandez, Jordyn Petty, Audrey Hatcher, Jamir Hubbard, Ty’Mier Jones, Jesus Parilla and Destiny Griffin.
5: John Robinson elected to the Virginia Senate
In 1869, John Robinson was elected to the Virginia Senate. On October 8, 1869, he voted to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment defined citizenship and required due process at the state level. The Fifteenth Amendment provided universal male suffrage. He was also on the Committee on Public Institutions that created laws for the new Virginia public school system.
4: Proprietor of the Effingham Tavern
After his time in the Virginia Senate, John Robinson purchased the Effingham Tavern. This hotel was built before 1775. Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and likely George Washington all stayed at the Effingham Tavern when visiting Cumberland. According to “legend,” the first call for American independence was made by a local governing body on April 22, 1776, when Carter Henry Harrison read the Cumberland Resolutions at the Effingham Tavern. Under John Robinson’s ownership, the tavern continued to host political events into the turn of the century. Under John Robinson’s ownership (1877-1908), the tavern continued to host political events into the turn of the century. At the time of his death in 1908, African Americans had fewer voting rights then when he was elected to the Virginia Senate. Poll taxes were established and continued to increase. In 1904, the Virginia General Assembly restricted the right to vote to men who had paid a poll tax of $1.50 for each of the three preceding years. These high poll taxes and literacy tests ended African American office holding in Virginia until the Civil Right Movement. There would not be another African American elected to the General Assembly until William Ferguson Reid was elected in 1968.
3: John Robinson elected Virginia Constitutional Convention Delegate
Before John Robinson’s time in the Virginia Senate, he was elected to represent Cumberland County in the 1867-1868 Virginia Constitutional Convention. The 1867 Congress required all former Confederate states to rewrite their state constitutions to reenter the union. On October 22, 1867, John Robinson was elected as a Delegate to the 1867-1868 Virginia Constitutional Convention. This was the first election where African American men could vote. At the 1867–68 Virginia Constitution, he voted in favor of establishing the first public schools and granting African American men the right to vote.
2: A free African American owner of land and human property
As a free African American in Virginia, John Robinson could not legally attend school or vote but it was legal for him to own land and enslave people. John Lipscomb Robinson was born on either October 28, 1825 or 1826. In 1826, Henry Lipscomb gave Catherine “Kitty” Lipscomb three enslaved people. As the Civil War began, the Cumberland County 1861 Tax Records show John Robinson owned two parcels of land and an enslaved person. During the Civil War John Robinson was requested to send his enslaved person to the Confederate fortifications but he initially refused the request. When Robinson was asked again, he sent his son James Henry Robinson. James Henry Robinson later became the second pastor at Mt. Olive Baptist Church.
1: Faced violence and fled to Amelia
Toward the end of the Civil War, John Robinson was violently attacked by Richard B. Trent (a former Cumberland County Sheriff), Lewis J. Walton, William B. Johnson, Robert J. Meador, H. Wallace Griffith, Zachariah Sanderson, George V. McGhee, Edward Gillam, Patrick H. Jackson, Edward Wilson, John H. Coleman, John D. Jenkins, Archer Reynolds, John A. Foster and Samuel Booker. Robinson was forced to sell and accept Confederate currency for some of his land and flee to Amelia County. Following the assault, Robinson took the men to the court. William D. Talley, a plantation owner and former county judge, testified against his attackers, which led to judgments against them.