Barbara Rose Johns Totally Explained

Everything about Barbara Rose Johns totally explained

===Early life=== Barbara Rose Johns was born in New York City, New York in 1935. Her family had roots in Prince Edward County, Virginia, 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, he was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. And also Robert.
Barbara’s uncle was the prominent Reverend Vernon Johns, an outspoken activist for civil rights. When he visited with Barbara and her family he'd ask the children questions about black history. 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. Frustrated with the separate and highly unequal facilities, Barbara decided to do something about it. She just had to do something about it.

Organizing the Strike and Filing Suit

Barbara met with several fellow classmates and they all agreed to help organize a student strike. On April 23rd 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 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. 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 Education. As Davis was the only case in Brown initiated by student protest, it's seen by some as the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.

After the Strike and Until Death

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, a profession she continued to hold until her death in 1991.

Activism Overlooked

Barbara Johns' contribution to civil rights is often overlooked due to the fact that she was a teenager when she made a difference. In the Pulitzer Prize-winning, author Taylor Branch remarks upon Davis v. Prince Edward:

[T]he 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.

Teenage activism is an important aspect of history, and the people involved should be remembered.

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