The U.S. Capitol will display a statue of Barbara Rose Johns in Emancipation Hall, replacing a Robert E. Lee monument removed in December 2020. Johns, who led a 1951 student strike in Farmville, helped prompt a case consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education. The statue by Steven Weitzman shows Johns holding a worn book and bears an inscription and a verse from Isaiah. The installation was approved by federal authorities and joins Virginia’s other statue of George Washington in the National Statuary Hall Collection.
Barbara Rose Johns Statue to Replace Robert E. Lee in U.S. Capitol, Honoring Teen Civil-Rights Leadership
FILE - Joan Cobbs, left, sister of civil rights legend Barbara Johns, shakes hands with Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, right, after a portrait of Barbara Johns, center, was unveiled in the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Va., Sept. 17, 2010. (Bob Brown/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The U.S. Capitol will begin displaying a statue of Barbara Rose Johns, the 16-year-old activist whose 1951 student strike helped catalyze the legal fight that became part of Brown v. Board of Education. The new work was installed in Emancipation Hall as a deliberate replacement for the Robert E. Lee statue that was removed from the Capitol in December 2020.
Unveiling Ceremony: The unveiling in Emancipation Hall will include national and Virginia leaders, among them House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and members of Virginia’s congressional delegation.
FILE - This Monday, Dec. 21, 2020 photo provided by the Office of the Governor of Virginia shows workers removing a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington. (Jack Mayer/Office of Governor of Virginia, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Johns’s Role in Civil Rights History: At age 16, Johns organized a student strike at R.R. Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia, to protest substandard facilities and unequal treatment. NAACP lawyers took up the students’ case, which was consolidated with four others and ultimately reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark 1954 decision that declared separate public schools unconstitutional.
The Statue: Sculpted by Maryland artist Steven Weitzman, the statue depicts the young Johns standing beside a lectern and holding a worn book aloft. The pedestal is engraved with her question,
“Are we going to just accept these conditions, or are we going to do something about it?”and includes a verse from Isaiah:
“And a little child shall lead them.”
FILE - This Monday, Dec. 21, 2020 photo provided by the Office of the Governor of Virginia shows a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee being removed from the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington. (Jack Mayer/Office of Governor of Virginia, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Official Sign-Off and Placement: The sculpture received final approval from the Architect of the Capitol and the Joint Committee on the Library in July. It joins the National Statuary Hall Collection, in which each state may contribute two statues; Virginia’s other statue in the collection depicts George Washington. The collection displays 35 statues throughout the Capitol, including the Crypt, the Hall of Columns and the Capitol Visitor Center.
Replacement Context: The Robert E. Lee statue had represented Virginia in the Capitol for 111 years before it was removed during a period of nationwide reassessment of Confederate monuments following the 2020 protests. The Lee sculpture was relocated to the Virginia Museum of History & Culture after the removal.
Legacy: Johns later became Barbara Rose Johns Powell after marrying the Rev. William Powell, raised five children and worked as a librarian in the Philadelphia Public Schools. She died in 1991 at age 56. She is also commemorated at the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial outside the state Capitol in Richmond.
Reactions: In a statement, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine said the Bible verse on the pedestal is a fitting reminder of Johns’s courage and leadership and expressed hope that her story will inspire future generations to stand up for equality and justice.
