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Starting Tuesday, a statue of teenager Barbara Rose Johns will be displayed at the US Capitol after she protested the poor conditions in her quarantine. Virginia The high school is a replacement for the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that was removed several years ago.
The unveiling ceremony for the statue representing Virginia at the Capitol will take place in Emancipation Hall with the Republican House Speaker in attendance. mike johnsondemocratic minority leader Hakeem JeffriesRepublican Virginia Gov. glen youngkin and Virginia’s congressional delegation.
Johns was 16 years old in 1951 when she led a student strike for equal education at R.R. Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia. The students’ issue received support from NAACP lawyers, who filed a lawsuit that became one of five cases reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education. The high court’s landmark 1954 decision declared “separate but equal” public schools unconstitutional.
Johns later married the Rev. William Powell and became Barbara Rose Johns Powell, raised five children and was a librarian in a Philadelphia public school. He died in 1991 at the age of 56.
A model of the statue shows the young Johns standing at the edge of a lectern, holding a tattered book over his head. Carved on its pedestal are the words, “Are we going to accept these conditions, or are we going to do something about it?” It also includes a quote from the Book of Isaiah, “And a little child shall lead them.”
In a statement on Monday, Democratic Sen. tim kaine Virginia Kay said the Bible verses remind her of Johns’ bravery and leadership.
“I’m thrilled that the millions of visitors to the U.S. Capitol, including many young people, will now walk by his statue and learn about his story,” Kaine said. “May she continue to inspire generations to stand up for equality and justice.”
The statue replaces the statue of Lee that was removed in December 2020 from the Capitol, where it had represented Virginia for 111 years. The removal occurred during renewed national attention to Confederate monuments following the death of George Floyd, and it was moved to the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.
Johns’ piece is part of the National Statue Hall collection in the Capitol, to which each state can contribute two statues. The second statue representing Virginia is of George Washington.
The National Statue Hall displays 35 statues. Others are in the Crypt, the Hall of Columns, and the Capitol Visitor Center.
Former Democratic Governor of Virginia Ralph Northam had requested the removal of Lee’s statue. In December 2020, a state commission recommended replacing the Lee statue with a statue of Johns.
The Johns statue, created by Steven Weitzman of Maryland, received final approval from a joint committee of the Architect of the Capitol and the Library in July.
Johns is also depicted in a statue on the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial outside the state Capitol in Richmond.