Young Students Walk Out and Lead the Way to Desegregation
In 1951, 16-year-old Barbara Johns and John Arthur Stokes led a group of students in a walkout protesting the poor conditions at Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia. The lawsuit born from this event, Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, was later incorporated into Brown v. Board of Education. Barbara Johns is memorialized with a statue in Richmond for her role in paving the way for school integration in Virginia.
