Early Life
Barbara Rose Johns was born in New York City, New York in 1935. Her family had roots in Prince Edward County, Virginia, where they returned to live. Her mother worked in Washington D.C. for the U.S. Navy, and her father operated the farm where 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 and was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart; and Robert.
Barbara’s uncle was the prominent Reverend Vernon Johns, an outspoken activist for civil rights. When he visited Barbara and her family, he would ask the children questions about black history. This motivated Barbara and her siblings to study black history, and Barbara, as well as her siblings, was influenced by Reverend Johns and his outspoken nature.
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Famous quotes related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)