Member-only story
5 Rural, Trailblazing Women You Should Know
Barbara Rose Johns — Student Activist
Barbara Rose Johns (March 6, 1935 — September 25, 1991) — Prince Edward County, VA
In 1951, 16-year-old Barbara Rose Johns grew tired of experiencing poor facilities, lack of access to modern science labs, and lackluster equipment at Robert Russa Moton High School in Prince Edward County, VA. She told one of her teachers about how she felt, and her teacher asked, "What are you going to do about it?"
She thought about her teacher's question for weeks and finally came up with a plan.
“The plan was to assemble together the student council members…. From this, we would formulate plans to go on strike. We would make signs and I would give a speech stating our dissatisfaction and we would march out the school and people would hear us and see us and understand our difficulty and would sympathize with our plight and would grant us our new school building and our teachers would be proud and the students would learn more and…
