Statue of civil rights activist Barbara Rose Johns unveiled at the US Capitol

On December 16, a new statue honoring civil rights pioneer Barbara Rose Johns was unveiled at the U.S. Capitol.

Johns’ statue replaces a long-standing monument to Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Johns’ bronze figure was unveiled in Emancipation Hall during a ceremony attended by national and state leaders, family members and civil rights advocates. The Capitol Ceremony, posted on YouTubewith Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, and Virginia Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger.

“We are here to honor one of America’s true pioneers, a woman who embodied the essence of the American spirit in her fight for freedom and justice and equal treatment under the law, the indomitable Barbara Rose Johns,” Johnson said at the event.

Gov. Youngkin celebrated the monumentt in a message Xcalling Johns’ contribution to Virginia an integral part of the state’s history.

“Today we gathered in the Emancipation Hall of the U.S. Capitol to dedicate the statue of Barbara Rose Johns, to honor her legacy as a pioneer and to ensure that her story of courage and conscience is a story for generations to come. You cannot tell the story of Virginia, or the story of how our nation overcame segregation, without telling the story of Barbara Rose Johns,” he wrote.

Johns was 16 years old in 1951 when she led a student strike at RR Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia, to protest substandard and segregated school conditions. The students’ actions helped attracting the attention of NAACP advocates. The lawyers would file one of five cases that the Supreme Court has consolidated Brown v. Council of Educationwhich ruled that “separate but equal” public schools were unconstitutional.

The statue depicts Johns holding a torn book above her head and is one of Virginia’s two contributions to the National Statuary Hall Collection. It was created by sculptor Steven Weitzman and will be displayed in the Capitol Crypt.

More than 200 members of Johns’ extended family attended the ceremony to celebrate her legacy of courage and commitment to justice.

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