John Robinson, born John Lipscomb, was a free person of color from Cumberland Co. who was a wagoner and landowner before the Civil War. Twice attacked by White men in 1864, he fled to Amelia Co. 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 from 1869 to 1873, 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.