By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Virginia’s special history commission on Wednesday picked Barbara Rose Johns, a lesser-known civil rights pioneer who led an early school desegregation effort, as the figure it wants to send to Washington to replace the state’s current statue of Robert E. Lee in the hallowed halls of the U.S. Capitol.
Brushing aside suggestions of founding-era heroes such as James Madison or Patrick Henry, and 20th Century statesman George C. Marshall, the commission said it wanted someone schoolchildren would identify with — and Johns, who was a teen in 1951 led a strike at her Virginia high school to demand facilities like white students had, fit the bill.
The local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People sued on the students’ behalf, in a case that would get wrapped up as part of the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision that outlawed segregated schools.
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https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/dec/16/robert-e-lee-be-replaced-barbara-rose-johns-capito/