Associated Press

Virginia Tech professor and poet Nikki Giovanni and NAACP Chairman Julian Bond greet spectators Monday as they look over the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial at the State Capitol in Richmond.

Kalena Porter of Richmond was one of about 4,000 people who attended the civil rights tribute. The $2.6 million memorial was paid for with private contributions.

RICHMOND -- Barbara Johns may not have considered herself to be a pioneer when she led fellow Prince Edward County high school students on a walkout to protest deplorable conditions at their all-black school.

But more than a half-century after starting a bold fight that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Johns and some of her fellow students are memorialized forever on the grounds of a state Capitol that once served as the epicenter of "massive resistance."

"At this moment, she would have been very proud," said Ernest Johns, whose sister is featured prominently on the new Virginia Civil Rights Memorial.

Former students of Robert Russa Moton High School, their families and civil rights leaders joined state officials Monday to dedicate the memorial, a tribute to the children and the lawyers who helped end racial segregation of Virginia's public schools. A crowd of about 4,000 attended the celebration on a hot, muggy morning in Capitol Square.

Hand bells rang out "We Shall Overcome" as a drape was removed from the four-sided memorial, which stands just outside the front gates of the governor's mansion.

"It looks like the state of Virginia is setting the example for other states in the South," said John Watson, who participated in the 1951 protest that called attention to conditions at Moton. A lawsuit filed on the students' behalf ultimately became part of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case.

The $2.6 million memorial was paid for with private contributions. The Roanoke Times was one of the donors.

The memorial features 18 figures around a large, granite block. One panel depicts the likenesses of Barbara Johns and her fellow Moton High protesters and a quote from Johns describing the students' quest: "It seemed like reaching for the moon."

Another panel displays bronze images of lawyers Oliver Hill and Spotswood Robinson, who represented the students and merged their lawsuit into the Brown v. Board of Education case. Another features the Rev. L. Francis Griffin, who served as a mentor and adviser to the group.

Hill, who spent much of his childhood in Roanoke, died last year at the age of 100. But he attended a 2007 ceremony on the site of the memorial where plans for the design were unveiled. Oliver Hill Jr., who attended Monday's dedication, said his father would have appreciated the memorial's emphasis on youth and its powerful symbolism.

"It's both reconciliation and a call to action," he said.

Terry Harrison, a daughter of Barbara Johns, called the memorial "breathtaking."

The civil rights memorial stands on grounds that also house the prominent equestrian statue of George Washington and monuments to Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, poet Edgar Allen Poe and former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Harry Byrd Sr.

It was Byrd who urged Virginia to defy the U.S. Supreme Court and implement a policy of "massive resistance" to the court's integration order.

Former first lady Lisa Collis, the wife of former Gov. Mark Warner, initiated efforts to add a civil rights memorial to Capitol Square. Collis said her youngest daughter Eliza once inquired about the statues honoring white males during a walk around the square and wondered why none honored civil rights figures.

"And know-it-all mom that I am or not, I realized I really couldn't explain why to my child," Collis said Monday. "And so I worked to rectify that."

Sculptor Stanley Bleifeld of Connecticut, who designed the structure, said he wanted to create "a living memorial" that conveyed optimism.

"A living memorial to me is one in which people that see it engage with it," Bleifeld said during the dedication ceremony. "They want to know why it's there, who are the people, what are they doing, what's behind it. If they think that way, for me it's successful."

Gov. Tim Kaine said the addition of the civil rights memorial symbolically opens Capitol Square "to all Virginians."

"This is also the first statue on the grounds that isn't just about yesterday," Kaine said. "It is about today and tomorrow."

The dedication ceremony featured music and speeches and a poem read by Virginia Tech professor and poet Nikki Giovanni, who brought the sun-drenched crowd to its feet with her closing words.

"This is about us, celebrating ourselves, and a well-deserved honor it is," Giovanni said. "Light the candles. This is a rocket. Let's ride."

Dignitaries dominated the dedication ceremony, but the former Moton students and their families received most of the attention Monday. Watson said the Prince Edward students were not out to end racial segregation when they organized their protest. But lawyers for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People would only take their case if they could make it part of a broader push for integration.

"The strike was about better schools and not about integration," he said.

The memorial that honors their fight is about progress, Watson said.

"The United States is a much better country than it was when I was growing up," said Watson, who now lives in Wilmington, Del.

Ernest Johns said his sister Barbara, who died in 1991, never would have expected such a monument on the grounds of the Capitol.

"The recognition, it was not what she was about when she started the demonstration and the walkout," said Johns, who lives in Bowie, Md.

But she would have loved the memorial's design and its symbolism, Johns said,

"If she had to plan it, I think she would have designed it exactly the way it was done," he said.