Barbara Rose Johns Honored with U.S. Capitol Statue for Civil Rights Legacy
A new statue of civil rights leader Barbara Rose Johns has been unveiled in the U.S. Capitol, representing the state of Virginia. The ceremony took place in Emancipation Hall on December 16, 2025, honouring her pivotal role in the fight for equal education. The statue was created by sculptor Steven Weitzman and will join the National Statuary Hall Collection. It replaces the figure of Robert E. Lee, which was removed in December 2020 and later moved to the Virginia Museum of History & Culture. Virginia’s other representative in the collection remains George Washington. The bronze sculpture depicts Johns at 16, the age when she led a student strike at R.R. Moton High School in Farmville in 1951. The protest, sparked by overcrowded and unequal conditions, gained support from NAACP lawyers and became part of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case. The statue shows her standing beside a lectern, holding a worn book above her head, with her words and a quote from the Book of Isaiah engraved on the pedestal. At the unveiling, her sister Joan Johns Cobbs read an entry from Barbara’s journal. The ceremony included speeches from Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Virginia’s Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, and Democratic Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger. Johns, who later married Reverend William Powell, worked as a librarian in Philadelphia and raised five children before her death in 1991 at 56. The statue now stands in the Crypt of the Capitol, ensuring Johns’ legacy as a champion of educational equality is permanently recognised. Her leadership in the 1951 strike remains a defining moment in the civil rights movement.
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