A statue of civil rights hero Barbara Johns will be unveiled later this fall to stand in the U.S. Capitol.
When a new statue of civil rights hero Barbara Johns is unveiled later this fall to stand in the U.S. Capitol, it will be a proud moment for Farmville and Prince Edward County.
Johns, whose courage as a teenage Farmville student helped set in motion the Brown v. Board of Education landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision to end school segregation, will join George Washington as the two Virginians chosen to be so honored in the halls of Congress.
The moment will shine a national light on Johns’ home community here. It will be tempting for those telling her story to fall back on the clichéd narrative of an out-of-the-way place experiencing a fleeting and coincidental moment of attention.
The truth is more interesting and well-known to chroniclers of America. Farmville and surrounding Prince Edward County have been consequential places in American history for centuries, at almost every critical juncture in the story of our nation. The journey of Barbara Johns to the U.S. Capitol fits into a powerful and much larger narrative — and it resonates anew today, as our country again struggles with the perpetual dilemma of how to balance pride in our progress with the hard work of reckoning honestly with painful aspects of our past.