Barbara Rose Johns (1935–1991) was a young, American civil rights leader-pioneer and the niece of the "father of the Civil Rights Movement," Reverend Vernon Johns.
Before Rosa Parks, before the Little Rock Nine, even before Martin Luther King, Jr. embraced nonviolent protest as a means to bring about social change, sixteen-year-old Barbara Rose Johns led her classmates in a strike to protest unfair conditions of her high school. The conditions in her high school were deplorable. To house the overflow of students, tar paper shacks were used as classrooms. The shacks leaked in the rain and were heated by pot-bellied stoves. The all-white high school across town was much better maintained.
Fed up with the situation, Barbara devised a plan. On April 23, 1951, Barbara led her classmates in a strike. Her strike eventually turned into a lawsuit against the county, and became part of the landmark Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, the case which desegregated schools in the United States.
Barbara was born in Harlem, in New York City, on March 6, 1935. Her parents, Robert and Adele Johns, were natives of Prince Edward County, Virginia. They had come to New York looking for work. When World War II came, and Barbara's father went into the army, her mother took Barbara and her siblings back to Virginia to live on her grandmother's farm. Barbara spent most of her youth living and working on a small tobacco farm.
On April 23, 1951, at the age of 16, Barbara led a student strike for equal education at R.R. Moton High School in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia. After securing NAACP legal support, the Moton students filed Davis v. Prince Edward County, the largest and only student initiated case consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring "separate but equal" public schools unconstitutional.
Shortly after the strike, Barbara’s parents, fearing for her safety, sent her to Montgomery, Alabama 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 librarian. She served in this profession until her death in 1991.
Barbara Rose Johns (1935–1991) was a young, American civil rights leader-pioneer and the niece of the "father of the Civil Rights Movement," Reverend Vernon Johns.
Before Rosa Parks, before the Little Rock Nine, even before Martin Luther King, Jr. embraced nonviolent protest as a means to bring about social change, sixteen-year-old Barbara Rose Johns led her classmates in a strike to protest unfair conditions of her high school. The conditions in her high school were deplorable. To house the overflow of students, tar paper shacks were used as classrooms. The shacks leaked in the rain and were heated by pot-bellied stoves. The all-white high school across town was much better maintained.
Fed up with the situation, Barbara devised a plan. On April 23, 1951, Barbara led her classmates in a strike. Her strike eventually turned into a lawsuit against the county, and became part of the landmark Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, the case which desegregated schools in the United States.
Barbara was born in Harlem, in New York City, on March 6, 1935. Her parents, Robert and Adele Johns, were natives of Prince Edward County, Virginia. They had come to New York looking for work. When World War II came, and Barbara's father went into the army, her mother took Barbara and her siblings back to Virginia to live on her grandmother's farm. Barbara spent most of her youth living and working on a small tobacco farm.
On April 23, 1951, at the age of 16, Barbara led a student strike for equal education at R.R. Moton High School in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia. After securing NAACP legal support, the Moton students filed Davis v. Prince Edward County, the largest and only student initiated case consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring "separate but equal" public schools unconstitutional.
Shortly after the strike, Barbara’s parents, fearing for her safety, sent her to Montgomery, Alabama 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 librarian. She served in this profession until her death in 1991.
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