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
Famous quotes containing the words barbara, rose and/or johns:
“Children are extraordinarily precious members of society; they are exquisitely alert, sensitive, and conscious of their surroundings; and they are extraordinarily vulnerable to maltreatment or emotional abuse by adults who refuse to give them the profound respect and affection to which they are unconditionally entitled.”
—Wisdom of the Elders, quoted in Kids Are Worth It, by Barbara Coloroso, ch. 1 (1994)
“When I heard at the close of the day how my name had been receiv’d
with plaudits in the capitol, still it was not a happy night for me
that follow’d,
And else when I carous’d, or when my plans were accomplish’d,
still I was not happy,
But the day when I rose at dawn from the bed of perfect health,
refresh’d, singing, inhaling the ripe breath of autumn,”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“I think every woman’s entitled to a middle husband she can forget.”
—Adela Rogers St. Johns (b. 1893)