resource: wikipedia

"Youth in Black History: Barbara Johns"

Barbara Rose Johns was born in New York City, New York in 1935. Her family had roots in Prince Edward County, Virginia, where they returned to live. Her mother worked in Washington D.C. for the U.S. Navy, and her father operated the farm where the family resided. The eldest of five children, Barbara had a younger sister, Joan Johns Cobbs, and three younger brothers: Ernest; Roderick, who served in Vietnam as a dog handler and was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart; and Robert. Barbara's uncle was the prominent Reverend Vernon Johns, an outspoken activist for civil rights. When he visited Barbara and her family, he would ask the children questions about black history.[1] This motivated Barbara and her siblings to study black history, and Barbara, as well as her siblings, was influenced by Reverend Johns and his outspoken nature.

While living in Prince Edward County, Barbara was educated in segregated public schools. In 1951, 16 year-old Barbara Johns was a junior at the all-black Moton High School in Farmville. Across town was another school, open exclusively to white students. The resources available to each school, and the quality of the facilities, were unequal. Barbara's school was designed and built to hold roughly 200 students, though by 1951 enrollment was twice that number.Parents of the black students appealed to the all-white school board to provide a larger and properly equipped facility. As a stopgap measure, the board erected several tar paper shacks to handle the overflow of students. Frustrated with the separate and unequal facilities, Barbara decided to take action.

Barbara met with several fellow classmates and they all agreed to help organize a student strike. On April 23rd the plan Barbara initiated was put into action. The principal of the school was tricked into leaving by being told that some students were downtown causing trouble. While the principal was away, Barbara Johns forged a memo from that principal telling the teachers to bring their classes to a special assembly. The teachers brought their classes and were surprised to find Barbara Johns standing on the stage. She delivered a speech revealing her plans for a student strike in protest of the unequal conditions of the black and white schools. The students agreed to participate, and on that day they marched down to the county courthouse to make officials aware of the large difference in quality between the white and black schools.

While the strike was being carried out, Barbara and other fellow students sought legal counsel from the NAACP. The NAACP agreed to assist as long as the suit would be for an integrated school system, and not just equal facilities. A month later, the NAACP filed Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County in federal court. The court upheld segregation in Prince Edward County, and the NAACP appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Davis v. Prince Edward County, along with four others cases, became part of the case Brown v. Board of Education. As Davis was the only case in Brown initiated by student protest, it is seen by some as the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.