Barbara Rose Johns

Barbara Rose Johns (1935–1991) was a young American civil rights hero who in 1951, at the age of 16, led a student strike for equal education at Moton High School in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia. After securing NAACP legal support, her suit became part of the historic 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, in which the court ruled against "separate but equal" and thus ended de jure segregation in American public schools. Prince Edward County ultimately responded to the Brown Decision by closing its public schools from 1959 to 1964, the longest period of Massive Resistance in the nation's history.

Read more about Barbara Rose Johns:  Early Life, Moton High School, Organizing The Strike and Filing Suit, After The Strike, Activist Legacy, Additional Reading

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