THE OVERLOOK
By Tom Clavin
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Next month will see the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme court that ruled segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. But this week is the 73rd anniversary of a teenager’s brave act – one of history’s hidden heroes -- that eventually led to the landmark ruling.
Barbara Rose Johns was born in March 1935 in New York City. Her family had roots in Prince Edward County, Virginia, where they returned to live. Her mother worked in Washington D.C. for the U.S. Navy and her father operated the farm where the family resided. The eldest of five children, Barbara had a younger sister, Joan, and three younger brothers: Ernest; Roderick, who would serve in Vietnam as a dog handler and be awarded a Bronze Star and Purple Heart; and Robert.
Their uncle was Vernon Johns, an outspoken activist for civil rights. When he visited his brother’s family, he would ask the children questions about black history. This motivated Barbara and her siblings to study the topic, and no doubt they were influenced by Vernon and his outspoken nature.
While living in Prince Edward County, the Johns children were educated in segregated public schools. In 1951, 16-year-old Barbara Johns was a junior at the all-black Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville (named after an African-American educator and author). Across town was another school, open exclusively to white students. The resources available to each school, and the quality of the facilities, were unequal. Also, Barbara's school was designed and built to hold roughly 200 students, though by 1951 enrollment was twice that number.
According to a recollection by Joan Johns: “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 paper shacks to handle the overflow of students. Barbara Johns was frustrated with the separate and unequal facilities. After missing her school bus and watching a bus for the white students pass her, she approached a trusted teacher to voice her concerns and the teacher suggested she take action.
Barbara met with several classmates and they all agreed to help organize a student strike. On April 23, 1951, the plan the 16-year-old initiated was implemented. 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 forged a memo from that principal telling the teachers to bring their classes to a special assembly. The teachers did so and left the assembly per request.
Barbara then delivered a speech to all 450 students, revealing her plan 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. The student leaders went into the office of School Superintendent T. J. McIlwaine who told them they were out of place. Barbara had hoped that the strike would end with the county officials sympathizing with the students and building them a new school, but instead they were met with indifference. Still, for the remainder of the day, students picketed the school, both inside and outside, with placards proclaiming, "We want a new school or none at all" and "Down with tar-paper shacks."
Two days later, Oliver W. Hill and Spottswood Robinson, lawyers for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, arrived in Prince Edward County to help the students of Robert Russa Moton High School, who had gone on strike. While the strike was being carried out, the NAACP agreed to assist as long as a lawsuit would be for an integrated school system and not just equal facilities.
A month later, the NAACP filed Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County in federal court. After the court decided against Barbara Johns and the other plaintiffs, the NAACP appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Davis case eventually was blended with four other similar cases to become part of the Brown v. Board of Education lawsuit. As Davis was the only case in the Brown case initiated by student protest, it is seen as one of the more unique roots of the Civil Rights Movement.
For her part in the integration efforts, Barbara Johns was harassed and the Ku Klux Klan burned a cross on the family’s farm. Barbara’s parents, fearing for her safety, sent her to Montgomery, Alabama, to live with an uncle – where she graduated from a segregated high school.
In the years after the student strike she had instigated, Barbara Johns lived in relative peace. She received a degree in library science from Drexel University. She married William Powell, and they raised five children while living in Philadelphia. Her commitment to education moved her to become a librarian for the Philadelphia school system. She served in this profession until her death from bone cancer at just age 56 in 1991.
In 2020, Barbara Johns Powell was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. On December 16 of that year, Virginia's Commission on Historical Statues in the United States Capitol voted to recommend that a statue of Barbara Johns represent Virginia in the National Statuary Hall, in place of the statue of Robert E. Lee. The Confederate general’s statue was removed less than a week later.
Tom Clavin is the bestselling author/co-author of 25 books, including Throne of Grace (with Bob Drury), to be published by St. Martin’s Press on May 7. To pre-order a copy, please go to your local bookstore or to Bookshop.org, Amazon.com, BN.com, or tomclavin.com.
I like her shenanigans too with the principal and the teachers.
Barbara Rose Johns is a name you are likely unfamiliar with, even though she was a genuine hero in the early days of the Civil Rights era. And today, she is finally honored with a statue in the U.S. Capital--one that replaced Gen. Robert E. Lee. OK, if I haven't piqued your interest yet, I don't know what I can do except stand on my head! Read Clavin's fascinating column about this unique woman (who was only a teenager when she did her bit).