From Tuesday, December 16, a statue representing civil rights leader Barbara Rose Johns as a teenager will be on display inside the U.S. Capitol, showcasing her activism against the deplorable conditions of racial segregation in a Virginia high school in the 1950s.
Barbara Rose Johns, at the age of 16, led a student strike at Farmville’s RR Moton High School in Virginia in 1951 to demand equal education. The students’ protest received support from NAACP lawyers, leading to a lawsuit that eventually became one of the five cases heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, declaring “separate but equal” unconstitutional.
The unveiling of the statue representing Virginia in the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall on Tuesday will be attended by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, and the Virginia congressional delegation.
Johns, who later married Reverend William Powell and raised five children, worked as a librarian in Philadelphia public schools before her passing in 1991 at the age of 56.
The statue portrays a young Johns standing next to a podium, holding a worn-out book aloft. Inscribed on the pedestal is a question: “Are we to accept conditions as they exist, or are we to take action?” The base also features a quote from the Book of Isaiah: “And a little child shall lead them.”
Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine remarked in a statement on Monday that the biblical passage reminded him of Johns’ bravery and leadership, expressing hope that millions of visitors, including many young people, touring the U.S. Capitol will learn her story and be inspired to stand up for equality and justice, generation after generation.
Johns’ statue is a part of the U.S. Capitol National Statuary Hall Collection. Each state can contribute two statues; the other representing Virginia is of George Washington.
Johns’ statue replaced the one of Robert Edward Lee in December 2020, removed from the Capitol amid renewed national scrutiny of Confederate memorials following the death of George Floyd. Lee’s statue had stood there representing Virginia for 111 years until it was relocated to the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.
Former Democratic Governor of Virginia Ralph Northam had called for the removal of General Lee’s statue, and in December 2020, a state commission recommended using Johns’ statue to replace Lee’s. The statue of Johns, sculpted by Steven Weitzman from Maryland, received final approval in July from the Architect of the Capitol and the Joint Committee on the Library.
Additionally, Johns’ statue appears in the sculpture at the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial outside the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond.
(Reference: Associated Press)