Joi Bass reported this story
On April 23, 1951, 16-year-old Barbara Johns organized a student walk out at Robert Russa Moton High School. The walk out would form part of the foundation of Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark Supreme Court decision that paved the way for school desegregation.
Joan Johns Cobbs, her sister, says she was as surprised as everyone else the day of the walk out.
“When she came to school and came to the auditorium, got on the stage and asked us to go out on a strike for a better school, just like everybody else in there, I was completely in the dark,” Johns Cobbs said.
Ken Plum: Changing images of Virginia
Published Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021, 10:15 am
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Ken Plum
On the east side of Capitol Square near the Executive Mansion in Richmond is the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial featuring 16-year-old Barbara Johns who led the student walkout that resulted in a civil rights case before the Supreme Court as part of
Brown v. Board of Education that found racially-segregated schools to be unconstitutional. With her on the memorial are statues of attorneys Oliver Hill and Spotswood Robinson who argued the case and representations of persons who faced repression throughout Virginia’s racist history.
January 28, 2021 at 10:45am
This is an opinion column by Del. Ken Plum (D), who represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.
On the east side of Capitol Square near the Executive Mansion in Richmond is the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial featuring 16-year-old Barbara Johns who led the student walkout that resulted in a civil rights case before the Supreme Court as part of Brown v. Board of Education that found racially-segregated schools to be unconstitutional. With her on the memorial are statues of attorneys Oliver Hill and Spotswood Robinson who argued the case and representations of persons who faced repression throughout Virginia’s racist history.
UpdatedWed, Jan 27, 2021 at 8:51 am ET
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Who best represents Virginia?
On the east side of Capitol Square near the Executive Mansion in Richmond is the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial featuring 16-year-old Barbara Johns who led the student walkout that resulted in a civil rights case before the Supreme Court as part of Brown v. Board of Education that found racially-segregated schools to be unconstitutional. With her on the memorial are statues of attorneys Oliver Hill and Spotswood Robinson who argued the case and representations of persons who faced repression throughout Virginia s racist history.
On the west end of Capitol Square, near where the new General Assembly office building is being constructed, is a lone statue of Harry F. Byrd: Senator, VA (1933–1965), Governor of Virginia (1926–1930), and Virginia State Senator (1924–1926).
12/31/2020, 6 p.m.
The Virginia General Assembly has the final decision on the statue that will forever be a reflection of Virginia in our U.S. Capitol.
Gen. Robert E. Leeâs statue resided in the Capitol for more than a century and its removal, while demonstrative, should be followed by that of a person who shared his substance, contribution, lifelong dedication, commitment and pride in the state of Virginia.
While Barbara Rose Johns has been identified as a student leader and activist who initiated a rebellion against the dilapidated school facilities and material inequities at Moton High School, her efforts that resulted in the lawsuit Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County could not have been achieved without attorneys Oliver W. Hill Sr. and Spottswood Robinson III. They took the case and planned the legal strategy that led to the lawsuit. They were the civil rights attorney-warriors that did the work and fought the hard fight to incorporate the Davis cas