A statue of Barbara Rose Johns, who led a 1951 student walkout at a segregated Virginia high school, has been installed in the U.S. Capitol. This statue replaced one of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Johns, at age 16, organized students at Farmville's Robert Russa Moton High School to protest school conditions, citing overcrowding and inadequate facilities in comparison to the white high school in the town. This protest contributed to one of the five cases consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision that declared school segregation unconstitutional. The student strike led by Johns in 1951 preceded later civil rights actions such as the Greensboro sit-ins and the Montgomery bus boycott.
Statue in the U.S. Capitol
The bronze statue of Barbara Rose Johns is now located in Emancipation Hall within the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. Each state contributes two statues to the Capitol. Virginia's two representatives were historically George Washington and Confederate General Robert E. Lee. In December 2020, then-Virginia Governor Ralph Northam requested the removal of Lee's statue from the Capitol. This occurred during a period that saw the removal of numerous Confederate symbols across the U.S. Virginia's Commission on Historical Statues in the United States Capitol voted to select Barbara Johns as Lee's replacement. Johns, who passed away in 1991, was selected from a list of finalists. The 11-foot statue, created by Maryland artist Steven Weitzman, depicts a teenage Johns at a podium. The pedestal is inscribed with the quote: "Are we going to just accept these conditions, or are we going to do something about it?"
Barbara Rose Johns' Background and the Walkout
Barbara Rose Johns was born in New York City in March 1935. She relocated to Prince Edward County, Virginia, during World War II. Sources from the Moton Museum indicate Johns' concerns regarding the limited resources at her school. Facilities included classrooms in tar-paper shacks without plumbing, and no dedicated science laboratories, cafeteria, or gymnasium. Johns documented in an unpublished memoir that a teacher's response to her concerns led her to consider organizing a strike. She coordinated with student council members to plan the action. Her memoir describes her vision for the strike: "We would make signs and I would give a speech stating our dissatisfaction and we would march out [of] the school and people would hear us and see us and understand our difficulty and would sympathize with our plight and would grant us our new school building and our teachers would be proud and the students would learn more and it would be grand."
On April 23, 1951, Johns assembled 450 students in the auditorium, leading them in a walkout to protest school conditions and advocate for a new building. The strike continued for approximately two weeks and resulted in contact with the NAACP.
Legal Impact of the Walkout
NAACP attorneys Spottswood Robinson and Oliver Hill filed Davis et al. v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Virginia in federal court, challenging segregated education within the county. The initial court decision favored the county but mandated physical equality between Black and white schools. In 1953, a new Black Moton High School, referred to as "Moton 2," was constructed. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education, incorporating the Farmville case alongside four other cases from various states. Enforcement of this ruling across the U.S., particularly in Virginia, encountered delays, with Virginia implementing a series of anti-integration laws known as "Massive Resistance."
Prince Edward County schools were integrated in 1964, following a five-year closure initiated to prevent integration. Moton 2 later reopened as Prince Edward County High School, operating until 1993.
Johns' Later Life and Recognition
Following the walkout, Barbara Rose Johns moved to Alabama to complete her education with relatives. She attended Spelman College and graduated from Drexel University. She subsequently worked as a librarian for Philadelphia Public Schools. Johns married the Rev. William Powell, and they had five children. She died at age 56.
Johns has received various recognitions in Virginia. Her narrative is a mandated component of public school curricula. In 2017, the Virginia Attorney General's Offices were renamed in her honor. In 2018, the Virginia General Assembly designated April 23, the anniversary of the walkout, as Barbara Johns Day statewide. Johns' sister, Joan Johns Cobbs, stated that the family regards the U.S. Capitol tribute as an honor.
Ceremony Attendance
The placement of Johns' statue follows earlier discussions, predating some recent federal actions regarding monument restoration. An executive order from a previous administration directed the Secretary of the Interior to restore public monuments removed or altered on federal lands since 2020. In October, a statue of Confederate General Albert Pike was reinstalled in a Washington D.C. park.
State leaders and members of Congress attended the statue's unveiling ceremony. Attendees included House Speaker Mike Johnson and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin. Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) also planned to attend, issuing a statement acknowledging Johns' actions at Moton High School.