Barbara Johns Powell

Barbara Johns Powell smiles broadly in this vibrant color photograph probably taken in the 1980s. As a sixteen-year-old in 1951, Barbara Johns led a student walkout at the all-Black Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville. That action helped trigger a legal case that, combined with four other cases, led to the historic Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned the segregation of public schools. This is one of a handful of photographs of her owned by the Johns Family.