US Capitol unveils statue of teen civil rights icon Barbara Rose Johns, taking Robert E. Lee's spot

Описание: (16 Dec 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington - 16 December 2025
1. Unveiling of Barbara Rose Johns statue
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Mike Johnson, U.S. Speaker of the House:
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"Today we are here to honor one of America's true trailblazers, a woman who embodied the essence of the American spirit in her fight for liberty and justice and equal treatment under the law, the indomitable Barbara Rose Johns. Thank you all for being part of it."
3. Zoom in of Barbara Rose Johns statue
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Leader:
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"The Commonwealth of Virginia will now be properly represented by an actual patriot who embodied the principle of liberty and justice for all. And not a traitor who took up arms against the United States to preserve the brutal institution of chattel slavery."
5. Med of Barbara Rose Johns statue
STORYLINE:
The U.S. Capitol on Tuesday began displaying a statue of a teenaged Barbara Rose Johns as she protested poor conditions at her segregated Virginia high school, a pointed replacement for a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that was removed several years ago.

An unveiling ceremony of the statue representing Virginia in the Capitol was taking place in Emancipation Hall, featuring Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Virginia's congressional delegation.

Johnson said more than 200 members of Johns' family were on hand, listening on as the ceremony opened with a rendition of “How Great Thou Art” performed by the Eastern Senior High School choir in Washington.

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

Johns was 16 years old in 1951 when she led a student strike for equal education at R.R. Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia. The students’ cause gained the support of NAACP lawyers, who filed a lawsuit that would become one of the five cases that the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed in Brown v. Board of Education. The high court’s landmark 1954 decision declared “separate but equal” public schools unconstitutional.

Johns later married the Rev. William Powell and became Barbara Rose Johns Powell, raised five children and was a librarian in the Philadelphia Public Schools. She died at 56 in 1991.

The statue shows the young Johns standing to the side of a lectern, holding a tattered book over her head. Its pedestal is engraved with the words, “Are we going to just accept these conditions, or are we going to do something about it?” It also features a quote from the Book of Isaiah, “And a little child shall lead them.”

The statue replaces one of Lee that was removed in December 2020 from the Capitol, where it had represented Virginia for 111 years. The removal occurred during a time of renewed national attention over Confederate monuments after the death of George Floyd and was relocated to the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

“The Commonwealth of Virginia will now be properly represented by an actual patriot who embodied the principle of liberty and justice for all, and not a traitor who took up arms against the United States to preserve the brutal institution of childhood slavery,” Jeffries said at the ceremony.





Johns is also featured in a sculpture at the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial outside the state Capitol in Richmond

AP video by Mike Pesoli



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