“It was time that Negroes were treated equally with whites, time that they had a decent school, time for the students themselves to do something about it. There wasn’t any fear. I just thought — this is your moment. Seize it!”
Barbara Rose Johns
Barbara Rose Johns, a pivotal figure in the American Civil Rights Movement, was born in New York City in 1935. Later, during World War II, she relocated to Prince Edward County, Virginia, to live with her maternal grandmother, Mary Croner, on a farm. Her formative years were spent immersed in farm life, working alongside her grandmother and later her father on their land. This rural upbringing in the racially segregated South deeply shaped her understanding of inequality and injustice, particularly within the education system.
Johns became acutely aware of the stark disparities in education as a student in Prince Edward County. Robert Russa Moton High School, the school for Black students, suffered from severely inadequate conditions. As she later recounted, the school lacked essential facilities, had dilapidated equipment, no science laboratories, and no dedicated gymnasium. Frustrated by these conditions, Barbara Johns voiced her concerns to a teacher. The teacher’s response, “Why don’t you do something about it?”, while seemingly dismissive, inadvertently sparked a fire in the young activist.
Initially discouraged, Johns spent months contemplating the teacher’s words. She envisioned a plan, feeling it was “divinely inspired.” Her idea was to gather the student council and organize a strike. She imagined students marching out of the school, holding signs, and her delivering a powerful speech to highlight their grievances. This act of defiance, she hoped, would garner public sympathy, leading to a new school building and improved educational resources.
On April 23, 1951, Barbara Johns, then just 16 years old, put her plan into action. She led her classmates in a courageous strike at Moton High School, protesting the profoundly substandard conditions. Her vision, meticulous planning, and unwavering persistence caught the attention of NAACP lawyers Spottswood Robinson and Oliver Hill. Impressed by the students’ determination and the clear injustice, they agreed to represent them in a legal challenge for equitable conditions at Moton High School.
Following meetings with students and the community, Robinson and Hill filed a lawsuit in the federal court in Richmond, Virginia. The case, Davis v. Prince Edward County, argued that the segregated schools were unconstitutional. This case became one of the five cases consolidated into the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. In this monumental decision, the Supreme Court declared state-sponsored segregation in public schools unconstitutional, effectively dismantling the legal framework of segregation in American education.
In the aftermath of the strike and the ensuing legal battle, Barbara Johns moved to Montgomery, Alabama, to live with her Uncle Vernon Johns, a prominent civil rights activist and pastor. She completed high school and went on to attend Spellman College in Atlanta, Georgia, and later graduated from Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Barbara Johns Powell, as she became after marrying Reverend William Powell, lived a private life, dedicating herself to her family and community. She raised five children and worked as a librarian in the Philadelphia Public Schools. Her pivotal role in the fight for educational equality remained largely unrecognized until later in her life. Barbara Johns Powell passed away in 1991, but her teenage bravery and leadership continue to inspire generations fighting for justice and equality. Her actions were instrumental in initiating the legal process that led to the desegregation of schools in America and cemented her legacy as a significant figure in the Civil Rights Movement.
