Photo: House Photographers Ian Cunningham and Brendan O’Hara
In 1951, a 16-year old Black girl named Barbara Rose Johns raised her voice against segregation. Her high school was in significantly worse conditions than the white high school in Farmville, Virginia. In protest, she led a student walkout that would become a key point in the American Civil Rights Movement. To honor her legacy, the U.S. Capitol has unveiled a statue in her likeness.
The statue is part of the National Statuary Hall Collection, featuring 100 statues that represent the 50 states; two for each one, placed around Capitol Visitor Center, the Hall of Columns, and the Crypt. Johns’ statute replaces a figure of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that was removed in 2020. She now joins George Washington as one of two figures that represent the state of Virginia.
“We are here to honor one of America’s true trailblazers, a woman who embodied the essence of the American spirit in her fight for liberty and justice and equal treatment under the law, the indomitable Barbara Rose Johns,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson at the unveiling event, attended by members of Congress, Virginia officials, and members of Johns’ family.
The 11-foot statue was created by Maryland artist Steven Weitzman. The artwork shows Johns standing at a podium, raising a book over her head as she calls her peers to action. The statue stands on a pedestal engraved with the words: “Are we going to just accept these conditions, or are we going to do something about it?”
Johns’ fight for equality at Robert Russa Moton High School turned out to be pivotal. With support from the NAACP, the students filed Davis v. Prince Edward County. With time, the lawsuit became one of the five cases, and the only student-initiated endeavor, that the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed in Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 ruling that declared school segregation unconstitutional.
Sources: Statue of teen civil rights icon Barbara Rose Johns replaces Robert E Lee at US Capitol
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