51³Ô¹ÏÍø

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 16: (SPEECH) Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) speaks "We celebrate this great day for the Commonwealth, as well as a great day for the nation as we honor the life of Barbara Rose Johns. It's been said that as a 16 year old, she led a walk out of students at the Morton High School in Farmville, Virginia, because she refused to accept inequality of segregated public schools. And her determination led her to contact Oliver Hill and Spotswood Robinson within the AACP, which led to the lawsuit. Davis versus County School Board and Prince Edward County, Virginia, which, as we just heard, ultimately became part of the landmark case of Brown, the Board of Education, where the Supreme Court famously said 'That in these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if denied the opportunity of an education.' Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which was to be made available to all on equal terms and overrule the president precedent of the separate but equal, saying that separate but equal facilities are inherently unequal." during the unveiling of a statue of civil rights activist Barbara Rose Johns in Emancipation Hall at the U.S. Capitol on December 16, 2025 in Washington, DC. In 1951, 16-year-old Johns led a walkout at her segregated Virginia high school to protest poor conditions for Black students. Johns will represent the state of Virginia as a replacement for a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee which was removed in 2020. (Footage by Alex Wong/Getty Images)