Barbara Rose Johns (1935-1991) was an African American rights activist who campaigned for integration at her school in 1951, when she was 16.
Barbara Rose Johns was born in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 1935. Her family had roots in
Prince Edward CountyPrince Edward County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2000 census, the population was 19,720. Its county seat is Farmville.-Origin, Worsham, Farmville:...
,
VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. The geography and climate of the state are shaped by the Blue...
, and it was there that they lived together in Darlington Heights. Her mother worked in Washington D.C. for the U.S. Navy, and her father operated the farm upon which the family resided.
Barbara Rose Johns (1935-1991) was an African American rights activist who campaigned for integration at her school in 1951, when she was 16.
Early life
Barbara Rose Johns was born in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 1935. Her family had roots in
Prince Edward CountyPrince Edward County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2000 census, the population was 19,720. Its county seat is Farmville.-Origin, Worsham, Farmville:...
,
VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. The geography and climate of the state are shaped by the Blue...
, and it was there that they lived together in Darlington Heights. Her mother worked in Washington D.C. for the U.S. Navy, and her father operated the farm upon which the family resided. The eldest of five children, Barbara had a younger sister, Joan Johns Cobbs, and three younger brothers: Ernest, Roderick, who served in Vietnam as a dog handler and was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, and Robert.
Barbara’s uncle was the prominent Reverend
Vernon JohnsVernon Johns was an American minister and civil rights leader who was active in the struggle for civil rights for African Americans from the 1920s....
, an outspoken activist for
civil rightsCivil and political rights are a class of rights and freedoms that protect individuals from unwarranted government action and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression....
. When he visited with Barbara and her family he would ask the children questions about black history. This motivated Barbara and her siblings to study black history, and Barbara, as well as her siblings, were influenced by Reverend Johns and his outspoken nature.
Moton High School
While living Prince Edward County, Barbara received her education through
segregatedRacial segregation is the separation of different racial groups in daily life, such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a washroom, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home. Segregation may be mandated by law or exist through social...
public schooling. In 1951, 16 year old Barbara was a junior at the all black
Moton High SchoolRobert Russa Moton Museum in the town of Farmville in Prince Edward County, Virginia is a museum which serves as a center for the study of civil rights in education.It is housed in the former R. R...
in
FarmvilleFarmville is a town in Cumberland and Prince Edward counties in the U.S. state of Virginia. The population was 6,845 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Prince Edward County. The Appomattox River runs through the town....
,
VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. The geography and climate of the state are shaped by the Blue...
. Across town was another school; open exclusively to white schoolchildren. The resources available to each school, and the quality of the facilities were very unequal. Barbara’s school was designed and built to hold roughly 200 students, and by 1951 enrollment was twice that number. According to a first person account from Barbara’s sister Ashlie:
In winter the school was very cold. And a lot of times we had to put on our jackets. Now, the students that sat closest to the wood stove were very warm and the ones who sat farthest away were very cold. And I remember being cold a lot of times and sitting in the classroom with my jacket on. When it rained, we would get water through the ceiling. So there were lots of pails sitting around the classroom. And sometimes we had to raise our umbrellas to keep the water off our heads. It was a very difficult setting for trying to learn.
Parents of the black students appealed to the all-white school board to provide a larger and properly equipped facility. As a stopgap measure, the board erected several
tar paperTar paper is a heavy-duty paper used in construction. Tar paper is made by impregnating paper with tar, producing a waterproof material useful for roof construction. Roofing felt, one common type of tar paper, is a glass fiber or polyester fleece impregnated with bituminous material ; it is...
shacks to handle the overflow of students. Frustrated with the separate and highly unequal facilities, Barbara decided to take action.
Organizing the Strike and Filing Suit
Barbara met with several fellow classmates and they all agreed to help organize a student strike. On April 23 the plan Barbara initiated was put into action. The principal of the school was tricked into leaving by being told that some students were downtown causing trouble. While the principal was away, Barbara Johns forged a memo from that principal telling all teachers to bring their classes to a special assembly. The teachers brought their classes and were then surprised to find young Barbara Johns standing on the stage. She delivered a speech revealing her plans for a student strike in protest of the unequal conditions of the black and white schools. The students agreed to participate, and on that day they marched down to the county courthouse to make officials aware of the large difference in quality between the white and black schools.
While the strike was being carried out, Barbara and other fellow students sought legal counsel from the NAACP. The NAACP agreed to assist as long as the suit would be for an
integratedDesegregation is the process of ending racial segregation, most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in Brown v...
school system, and not just equal facilities. A month later, the NAACP filed
Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward CountyDavis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County was one of the five cases combined into Brown v. Board of Education, the famous case in which the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1954, officially overturned racial segregation in U.S. public schools...
in
federal courtThe 94 United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty. There is a United States bankruptcy court associated with each United States...
. The court upheld segregation in Prince Edward County, and the NAACP appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Davis v. Prince Edward County, along with four others cases, became part of the case
Brown v. Board of EducationBrown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court, which overturned earlier rulings going back to Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, by declaring that state laws that established separate public schools for black and white students denied...
. As Davis was the only case in Brown initiated by student protest, it is seen by some as the beginning of the
Civil Rights MovementThe Civil Rights Movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. It was accompanied by much civil unrest and popular rebellion. The process was long and tenuous in many countries, and most of these movements did not achieve or...
.
After the Strike and Until Death
Shortly after the strike Barbara’s parents, fearing for her safety, sent her to
MontgomeryMontgomery is the capital, second most populous city, and the fourth most populous metropolitan area in the Southern U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. The city population was 201,568...
,
AlabamaAlabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its...
to live with her uncle. After the strike, Barbara lived out the rest of her life in relative peace. She married Reverend William Powell and raised five children. Her commitment to education moved her to become a
librarianA librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs. Typically, librarians work in a public or college library, an elementary or secondary school media...
, a profession she continued to hold until her death in 1991.
Activist Legacy
Barbara Johns' contribution to civil rights is often overlooked because she was a teenager when she made a difference. In the
Pulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by Hungarian-American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City....
-winning
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63, author
Taylor BranchTaylor Branch is an American author and historian best known for his award-winning trilogy of books chronicling the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. and some of the history of the American civil rights movement...
remarks upon Davis v. Prince Edward:
The case remained muffled in white consciousness, and the schoolchild origins of the lawsuit were lost as well on nearly all Negroes outside Prince Edward County. ... The idea that non-adults of any race might play a leading role in political events had simply failed to register on anyone — except perhaps the Klansmen who burned a cross in the Johns' yard one night, and even then people thought their target might not have been Barbara but her notorious firebrand uncle.
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