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

For Dahvid,
Sabrina, and Joel

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kanefield, Teri.

The girl from the tar paper school : Barbara Rose Johns and the advent of the civil rights movement / by Teri Kanefield.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4197-0796-4 (alk. paper)

eISBN 978-1-61312-517-5

1. Powell, Barbara Johns, 19351991Juvenile literature. 2. Civil rights movementsUnited StatesHistory20th centuryJuvenile literature. 3. Civil rights workersUnited StatesBiographyJuvenile literature. 4. Women civil rights workersUnited StatesBiographyJuvenile literature. 5. Segregation in educationVirginiaHistory20th centuryJuvenile literature. 6. VirginiaRace relationsHistory20th centuryJuvenile literature. I. Title.

E185.97.J59 K35 2013

323.092dc23

[B]

2012040990

Text copyright 2014 Teri Kanefield

For image credits see

Book design by Maria T. Middleton

Published in 2014 by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

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195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007
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In the middle of the twentieth century, in a remote
county that time had left to dawdle amid the
picturebook loveliness of the Virginia countryside,
a leader arose among the black people.

PULITZER PRIZEWINNING AUTHOR RICHARD KLUGER,
FROM SIMPLE JUSTICE, A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST

The year was 1950. Barbara Rose Johns was a fifteen-year-old high school junior with a problem to solve. Barbara and her sister, Joan, attended the Robert R. Moton High School for black students, located in the nearest town, Farmville, Virginia, fifteen miles from their farm. Her brothers, Ernest and Roderick, attended the Mary Branch Elementary School, also in Farmville.

Moton High was a squat brick building nestled in a fork of Route 15. Alongside the school were temporary classrooms built to accommodate an overflow of students. The structures were made of wood covered with a heavy paper coated with tar. The students called them chicken coops. The tar paper shacks were Barbaras problem. They didnt appear to be temporary.

When it rained, the roofs leaked. Buckets collected the dripping water. Some students sat under umbrellas so the ink on their papers wouldnt run. The makeshift classrooms, like the regular classrooms, were heated by potbellied wood stoves instead of furnaces. Students sitting near the stoves were too hot. Students sitting farther away from the stoves shivered in their coats, hats, scarves, and gloves. As a result, they frequently got sick. Teachers had to stop their lessons to stoke the fire. Smoke often eddied into the room instead of going up the chimney, causing sneezing and watery eyes.

This photograph of Barbara appeared in the Richmond Afro-American in 1951 and again in 1953.

Robert R. Moton High School students, photographed with a pennant during the 1952 homecoming events.

Moton High School: The main brick building is in the center; the tar paper shacks are to the sides. 1952.

One day, Barbara spoke to her favorite teacher, Miss Inez Davenport, about the problem of the shacks. Miss Davenport taught music at the high school. Barbara had come to know her on a personal level when she and Joan took piano lessons from her. Barbara had grown to trust her, feeling she could share her private thoughts without Miss Davenport thinking her childish.

Im sick and tired of it all, Barbara told her. Barbara talked about Motons inadequacies and Farmville Highs superior facilities. Farmville High, the school for white students, had modern heating, an industrial-arts shop, locker rooms, an infirmary, a cafeteria, and a real auditorium complete with sound equipment.

When Barbara finished speaking, she looked to Miss Davenport for an answer. But Miss Davenport was the type of teacher who encouraged her students to think for themselves. She believed life was like music: varied and rich, lending itself to different moods, moments, thoughts, and opinions. So instead of offering a solution, Miss Davenport asked a question: Why dont you do something about it?

Barbara turned away, disappointed. At the time, she didnt understand the importance of the question. She felt Miss Davenport had dismissed her with that reply.

Like the tar paper shacks, the Moton High classrooms in the main building were heated by potbellied stoves. 1952.

Barbara was often described as a quiet girl, inward, intelligent, and mature. 1952.

Farmville High School, Prince Edward Countys white high school. 1953.

Miss Inez Davenport, Barbaras favorite teacher. 1953.

A Little Child Shall Lead Them

When Barbara was in high school, segregation was legal in the United States. Segregation meant that white people and black people should attend separate schools and should, in general, be kept apart: Under segregation laws, known as the Jim Crow laws, blacks were not permitted to drink from the same water fountains as white people, play in the same parks, or enter certain public buildings.