HONORING CIVIL RIGHTS ICON BARBARA ROSE JOHNS

HONORING CIVIL RIGHTS ICON BARBARA ROSE JOHNS

Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 37 (Tuesday, February 25, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 37 (Tuesday, February 25, 2025)] [House] [Pages H826-H827] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] HONORING CIVIL RIGHTS ICON BARBARA ROSE JOHNS (Mr. SUBRAMANYAM asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.) Mr. SUBRAMANYAM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as we honor February as Black History Month. I think of the students at Waterford's Second Street School in my district, a one-room schoolhouse established 2 years after the end of the Civil War where kids studied under segregation. I think of Barbara Rose Johns, a civil rights icon from Virginia. Barbara's high school was dilapidated and overcrowded. At just 16, she led her classmates in a walkout, inspiring the Virginia NAACP to sue for integration. The walkout sparked one of five cases reviewed by the Supreme Court in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to say that Barbara Johns will soon have a statue just steps from this Chamber, alongside George Washington, representing the Commonwealth of Virginia. As a country, we have come a long way since Barbara Rose Johns' high school was integrated, but we can't let our country slide back. We will continue to fight and honor the work and legacies of Barbara Johns and all who fought for a more perfect Union. [[Page H827]] ____________________