Editing Danville, Virginia (section)

===20th century===
A serious train wreck occurred in Danville on September 27, 1903. "Old 97", the [[Norfolk Southern Railway|Southern Railway]]'s crack express mail train, was running behind schedule. Its engineer "gave her full throttle", but the speed of the train caused it to jump the tracks while on a high trestle crossing the valley of the Dan River. The engine and five cars plunged into the ravine below, killing nine and injuring seven. The locomotive and its engineer, Joseph A. ("Steve") Broadey, were memorialized in song. A historic marker at the train crash site is located on U.S. 58 between Locust Lane and North Main Street. A mural of the ''[[Wreck of the Old 97]]'' has been painted on a downtown Danville building to commemorate the incident.

Afterward Democrats forced African Americans out of office and suppressed their voting rights. In November 1883 Democrats regained control of the state legislature by a large majority, and pushed out the Readjuster Party.

White Democratic legislators interpreted the Danville events as more reason to push blacks out of politics. In 1902, the state legislature passed a new constitution that raised barriers to voter registration, effectively [[Disfranchisement after the Reconstruction era|disenfranchising most blacks]] and many poor whites, who had been part of the Readjuster Party. They excluded them from the political system, causing them to be underrepresented and their segregated facilities to be underfinanced.<ref name="vaenc">[https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Disfranchisement#its2 Brent Tarter, "Post-Reconstruction Suffrage and following sections"], ''Disfranchisement'', Encyclopedia of Virginia, 19 July 2016; accessed 17 March 2018</ref>

On July 15, 1904, the Danville police successfully broke up a lynching party by firing warning shots above a crowd. About 75 white men had gathered at the jail to take Roy Seals, an African American man arrested as a suspect in the murder of a white railroad worker. The police saved Seals and the city quickly indicted some of the lynch mob; several men were convicted, fined and served 30 days in jail. The killer was found to have been another white man, who was prosecuted.<ref name="arcadia"/>

On March 2, 1911, Danville police chief R. E. Morris, who had been elected to three two-year terms and was running for a fourth term, was arrested as an escaped convicted murderer. He admitted that he was really Edgar Stribling of [[Harris County, Georgia]]. He had been on the run for thirteen years.<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1911/03/03/105022523.pdf "Arrest Police Chief as Escaped Convict"], ''The New York Times'', March 3, 1911. Retrieved January 10, 2008.</ref>

On October 13, 1917, Walter Clark was lynched. He was an African American man who had fatally shot a policeman while resisting arrest for the killing of his common-law wife. Clark held off the police for two hours, but a mob gathered and set his house on fire. He was shot multiple times and killed as he left the house. His was the last lynching in Danville.<ref name="arcadia"/>

Heightened activism in the [[civil rights movement]] in Virginia occurred in Danville during the summer of 1963. Since the early 20th century, most blacks had been excluded from voting by the state constitution, which had created barriers to voter registration. White Democrats had imposed legal segregation after regaining control of the state legislature following the [[Reconstruction era]], and [[Jim Crow laws]] maintained [[white supremacy]]. On May 31, representatives of the black community organized as the Danville Christian Progressive Association (DCPA), demanding an end to segregation and job discrimination in the city. They declared a boycott of white merchants who refused to hire blacks and marched to City Hall in protest of conditions.

Most of the marchers were high school students. Police and city workers, armed with clubs, beat the young protesters and sprayed them with fire hoses. Around forty protesters needed medical attention, but the marches and other protests continued for several weeks.<ref name=CRMV>{{cite news|last = Civil Rights Movement Archive| title = Danville VA, Movement| url = http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis63.htm#1963danville}}</ref> Reverend [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), came to Danville and spoke at High Street Baptist Church about the police brutality. He said it was the worst he had seen in the South. The date of one protest on June 10, 1963, later came to be referred to as "[[Bloody Monday (Danville)|Bloody Monday]]."<ref name=NA>{{cite news|last1=Crane|first1=John R.|title=Bloody Monday: History-changing day|url=http://www.newsadvance.com/go_dan_river/news/danville/bloody-monday-history-changing-day/article_c1366350-ca50-11e2-949c-0019bb30f31a.html |access-date=4 November 2015 |publisher=News-Advance |date=June 2, 2013}}</ref>

The [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] (SNCC) sent organizers to Danville to support the local movement. They helped lead protests, including demonstrations at the [[Howard Johnson's|Howard Johnson Hotel]] and restaurant on Lee Highway. The hotel was known for discriminating locally against blacks as customers and excluding them as workers. A special grand jury indicted 13 DCPA, [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference|SCLC]], and SNCC activists for violating the "John Brown" law. This law, passed in 1830 after a slave uprising, made it a serious felony to "...incite the colored population to acts of violence or war against the white population." It became known as the "John Brown" law in 1860 because it was used to convict and hang abolitionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] after his raid on [[Harpers Ferry, West Virginia|Harpers Ferry]] in 1859.<ref name=CRMV/>[[File:RiverwalkDanDaniel.jpg|thumb|The Riverwalk Trail near the Dan Daniel Park along the Dan River]]

By the end of August, more than 600 protesters had been arrested in Danville on charges of inciting to violence, contempt, trespassing, disorderly conduct, assault, parading without a permit, and resisting arrest. Because of the large number of arrests on these charges, often the jails were overcrowded, and protesters were housed in detention facilities in other nearby jurisdictions. The demonstrations failed to achieve desegregation in Danville at that time. Town facilities remained segregated until after passage of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]. African American residents were mostly unable to register and vote until after the federal government enforced their constitutional rights under the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]].<ref name=CRMV/>

Since the late 20th century, the textile industry has moved to offshore, cheaper labor markets. The Dan River mill has closed and many of its buildings have been torn down, with the bricks sold for other uses. "The White Mill" of the Dan Mill complex, considered historically and architecturally significant, is being renovated in the early 21st century as an apartment complex.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tupponce |first=Joan |date=2021-07-30 |title=Danville's White Mill gets second chance |url=https://www.virginiabusiness.com/article/danvilles-white-mill-gets-second-chance/ |access-date=2022-01-15 |website=Virginia Business}}</ref>

In the late 20th century, the restructuring of the tobacco, textile, and railroad industries all had an adverse effect, resulting in the loss of many jobs in Danville. The decline in passenger traffic caused the Danville railroad station to fall into disuse. It was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1995, and has been renovated by a combination of public and private funding. Today part of the station is devoted to the first satellite facility of the [[Science Museum of Virginia]].

The station renovations were completed in 1996. This project spurred investment in other warehouse properties, "which have been redeveloped into offices, commercial spaces, apartments, lofts, and restaurants. The approximately $4 million of federal grant money initiated the redevelopment and leveraged additional funds from public and private sources."<ref name="danstation">[http://www.greatamericanstations.com/stations/danville-va-dan/ "Danville, VA (DAN)"], The Great American Stations, 2013–2018, Amtrak; accessed 17 March 2018</ref>

Related spaces were developed for a park with amphitheater, a community meeting and recreation facility, and the Danville Farmer's Market. The city used ISTEA funds in association with the Virginia Department of Transportation, and partnered also with Amtrak, Pepsi-Cola, and other private sources.