Barbara Rose Johns

Barbara Rose Johns was a high school student who lived during segregation when "separate but equal" was United States law. In April 1951, unbeknownst to their parents and teachers, she took it upon herself to secretly organize her school classmates to boycott lessons until their demands of a school building equal to their white counterparts were met by the school board. Her role in this non-violent demonstration led to threats of violence, cross burnings, and finally having their case taken up by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and enjoined with the Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court Case which ended "separate but equal" and made integration the law. Teri Kanefield’s children's biography of Barbara Rose Johns The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement is available to purchase at the link below, or you can check it out at your local library.