Virginia’s policy of school segregation not only separated students by race, but it also resulted in disproportionate funding that produced black schools that were overcrowded, inadequate, and unequal. The gap between black and white school facilities was particularly wide in Prince Edward County, Virginia. R.R. Moton High School held over twice its capacity while there were empty classrooms at all-white Farmville High. In addition to overcrowding, Moton lacked a number of modern facilities such as a cafeteria, a gymnasium, a science laboratory, and a fixed-seat auditorium. Throughout the 1940s, black parents and community leaders had petitioned the all-white school board for equal facilities for their children. In 1948, the Board of Supervisors responded by constructing three "overflow classrooms" on the grounds of R.R. Moton High School. These cheap structures had plywood walls, leaky roofs, and exteriors covered in tar paper. Students often wore winter jackets to classes in what they called the "tar paper shacks."
By the spring of 1951, a sixteen year old Junior decided to take matters into her own hands. Barbara Johns was a curious and quiet student who was keenly aware of the black community’s efforts to demand educational equality. When she shared her frustrations with her music teacher, Ms. Inez Davenport responded by asking, “then why don’t you do something about it?” Barbara decided that the time had come, and she started to formulate a plan for direct action. She met with John and Carrie Stokes, Irene Taylor, and Hodges Brown on the bleachers next to the Moton athletic field, and revealed her plans for a student-led strike in protest of inequality. The five of them recruited a group of other student leaders and secretly made plans for the demonstration.
On the morning of April 23, 1951, a student leader named John Watson used a nearby pay-phone to falsely report that two Moton students were in a fight downtown playing "hooky." When the principal left, the students leaders distributed forged notes, signed by Barbara, to the teachers calling for an emergency assembly. There was confused excitement as hundreds of students packed into the school’s auditorium. The teachers were looking for the principal when an unsuspecting student walked on stage. Barbara Johns stood confidently before her classmates as she asked for their attention. The room fell silent and she started to talk about their rights to an equal education. She affirmed many deep feelings of her classmates as she recounted the ways in which their school was inadequate and underfunded. She closed by calling on them to walk out in protest until the school board agreed to equalize their facilities. The principal returned and pleaded with them to go back to class, but he didn’t try to stop the students as they followed Barbara out of the school on strike.
On the morning of April 23, 1951, a student leader named John Watson used a nearby pay-phone to falsely report that two Moton students were in a fight downtown playing "hooky." When the principal left, the students leaders distributed forged notes, signed by Barbara, to the teachers calling for an emergency assembly. There was confused excitement as hundreds of students packed into the school’s auditorium. The teachers were looking for the principal when an unsuspecting student walked on stage. Barbara Johns stood confidently before her classmates as she asked for their attention. The room fell silent and she started to talk about their rights to an equal education. She affirmed many deep feelings of her classmates as she recounted the ways in which their school was inadequate and underfunded. She closed by calling on them to walk out in protest until the school board agreed to equalize their facilities. The principal returned and pleaded with them to go back to class, but he didn’t try to stop the students as they followed Barbara out of the school on strike.
The students remained on strike for the next two weeks. Reverend L. Francis Griffin supported the strike leaders and encouraged them to contact the NAACP. When Barbara and Carrie called the NAACP's Richmond law offices, attorney Oliver Hill initially declined to take their case and encouraged them to go back to school. On the third day of the strike, Reverend Griffin received word that Oliver Hill and co-counsel Spottswood Robinson would stop in Farmville on their way to a case in Pulaski County. The students met them in the basement of Griffin’s First Baptist Church. Hill and Robinson tried to convince the students that Farmville was not the ideal location for a civil rights lawsuit, but the students insisted that the black community was united behind their cause. Hill and Robinson were hesitant to say no, and they agreed to consider their case if the students changed their demands from “separate, but equal” schools to the integration of public schools in general. NAACP legal strategy had shifted from enforcing Plessy v. Ferguson to arguing that segregation per se was unconstitutional. Barbara later remarked that demanding full integration "seemed like reaching for the moon.”
The NAACP held two mass meetings at the First Baptist Church in order to test the resolve of the black community. The wall-to-wall crowds were nearly unanimously in their support of the students’ case. Two weeks after the strike began, the NAACP filed a petition with the Prince Edward County School Board asking for schools to be integrated. This petition later evolved into a court case that was subsequently combined with four other school desegregation cases that went before the Supreme Court three years later as Brown v. the Board of Education. It is astounding to think that what started as an act of student protest in Southside Virginia became one of the most landmark legal decisions in American history.
In 2008, the Commonwealth of Virginia unveiled the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial on the grounds of the State Capitol. The four-sided memorial features Barbara Johns, Reverend Griffin, Oliver Hill, Spottswood Robinson, and the students of R.R. Moton High School for their central role in Virginia’s civil rights struggle. In 2017, Governor Terry McAuliffe officially renamed the state building for the Office of the Attorney General as “The Barbara Johns Building.” That same year, the General Assembly passed a bill designating every April 23rd as “Barbara Johns Day” in Virginia. Farmville recently renamed the Farmville-Prince Edward Community Library as the Barbara Rose Johns Farmville-Prince Edward Community Library - memorializing both her role in the student strike and her twenty four years of service as a school librarian. The brave actions of Barbara Johns prove that citizens of any age, race, and gender can leave their mark on history.
In 2008, the Commonwealth of Virginia unveiled the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial on the grounds of the State Capitol. The four-sided memorial features Barbara Johns, Reverend Griffin, Oliver Hill, Spottswood Robinson, and the students of R.R. Moton High School for their central role in Virginia’s civil rights struggle. In 2017, Governor Terry McAuliffe officially renamed the state building for the Office of the Attorney General as “The Barbara Johns Building.” That same year, the General Assembly passed a bill designating every April 23rd as “Barbara Johns Day” in Virginia. Farmville recently renamed the Farmville-Prince Edward Community Library as the Barbara Rose Johns Farmville-Prince Edward Community Library - memorializing both her role in the student strike and her twenty four years of service as a school librarian. The brave actions of Barbara Johns prove that citizens of any age, race, and gender can leave their mark on history.
SOURCES
"Barbara Rose Johns Portrait Now Featured at Virginia Capitol." Moton Museum RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2017.
"Documents Related to Brown v. Board of Education." National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives and Records Administration, 15 Aug. 2016. Web. 24 May 2017.
"Gallery II: Tar Paper Shacks." Moton Museum RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2017.
Kanefield, Teri. The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement. New York: Abrams for Young Readers, 2014. Print.
Kluger, Richard. Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America’s Struggle for Equality. New York: Knopf, 1976.
Mencarini, Christyna. "All Roads Led to Farmville." ir Voices, Our History: Stories of Prince Edward County, Virginia 2016: 15-16. Print.
Riggan, Phil. "Virginia Civil Rights Memorial at Capitol Square." Richmond On The James. N.p., 19 Jan. 2010. Web. 24 May 2017.
Stokes, John A., Lois Wolfe, and Herman J. Viola. Students on Strike: Jim Crow, Civil Rights, Brown, and Me: a Memoir. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2008. Print.
"Unsung Heroes: Farmville Student Strike." Newseum. N.p., 26 Feb. 2015. Web. 24 May 2017.
Wallenstein, Peter. Cradle of America: Four Centuries of Virginia History. New York: University of Kansas Press, 2007.
"Barbara Rose Johns Portrait Now Featured at Virginia Capitol." Moton Museum RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2017.
"Documents Related to Brown v. Board of Education." National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives and Records Administration, 15 Aug. 2016. Web. 24 May 2017.
"Gallery II: Tar Paper Shacks." Moton Museum RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2017.
Kanefield, Teri. The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement. New York: Abrams for Young Readers, 2014. Print.
Kluger, Richard. Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America’s Struggle for Equality. New York: Knopf, 1976.
Mencarini, Christyna. "All Roads Led to Farmville." ir Voices, Our History: Stories of Prince Edward County, Virginia 2016: 15-16. Print.
Riggan, Phil. "Virginia Civil Rights Memorial at Capitol Square." Richmond On The James. N.p., 19 Jan. 2010. Web. 24 May 2017.
Stokes, John A., Lois Wolfe, and Herman J. Viola. Students on Strike: Jim Crow, Civil Rights, Brown, and Me: a Memoir. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2008. Print.
"Unsung Heroes: Farmville Student Strike." Newseum. N.p., 26 Feb. 2015. Web. 24 May 2017.
Wallenstein, Peter. Cradle of America: Four Centuries of Virginia History. New York: University of Kansas Press, 2007.