The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement

Gr 6 Up—This is the story of a Farmville, Virginia high schooler, who, in 1953, led a student strike for a better-built school on par with the building for white students. Although she was known as a quiet, reserved student, Johns was so incensed about the terrible conditions in which she and her classmates were required to learn that she engineered the exit of the principal from her school, mocked up a call to assembly, and then led students out on strike. She contacted the NAACP, which counseled that students return to class. When they refused, the organization told Johns that it would support only movements for integration. Students then worked to get an agreement to request integration from their parents and the broader black community. Once the community aligned behind integration as the eventual goal and a lawsuit was filed, students returned to class. The suit filed on behalf of the Farmville students ended up in the Supreme Court, one of the four cases that comprised the historic Brown v. Board of Education ruling. Beautifully and clearly written, this story of a teen who refused to be deterred in her pursuit of educational equality is matched by period photos-many of them located only after significant effort, as the Johns's home was burned-and primary source quotations. A "Civil Rights Timeline," solid end notes and source notes, and a sound index round out this excellent look at the roots and the breadth of the Civil Rights Movement.—Ann Welton, Grant Elementary School, Tacoma, WA