Mike Parker: Farmville student a pioneer for Civil Rights

When I started researching the Adkin High School Walk-out of 1951, I heard about another student walk-out – one that occurred in Farmville. Since I had taught at Farmville Central High School in Pitt County, I assumed the walk-out occurred there. We all know what happens when we assume. I had missed the location by roughly 170 miles. That walk-out took place in Farmville, Va., in Prince Edward County.

I was born in Roanoke, Va. in 1950. After my family relocated, I was a student in the Richmond City Schools from 1956 through 1964. I thought I knew a great deal about Virginia history. However, I never heard about the R.R. Moton High School Walk-out of 1951. I had the same experience in Kinston. I moved here in 1971 and lived here 47 years before I heard about the Adkin walk-out of 1951.

In 1939 the Robert Russa Moton High School was built as the first high school for black students in Prince Edward County, Virginia. Part of the funding came from the Public Works Administration. The school, built to house 180 students, had no gym, no cafeteria, no science labs, and no athletic fields. Those factors demonstrate the patently “separate but unequal” attitude toward the education of black students. Prior to the construction of Moton High, the county offered only elementary school instruction for its black school-aged children.

By 1949, the school population had grown to more than 400 students. The county accommodated that growth by constructing freestanding buildings from plywood and tar paper. The buildings had no plumbing. Wood-burning stoves provided the only heat for these structures. In the winter students dressed in their heavy coats and huddled in these makeshift classrooms to keep warm.

 At the heart of the Moton Walk-out was 16-year-old Barbara Johns. Shortly after 11 a.m. on April 23, 1951, the students called an assembly – without the knowledge of the school’s principal. Johns explained in detail their grievances and presented a plan to bring attention to the plight of Moton’s black students. Students overwhelmingly supported the plan – and walked out. For the rest of the day, students picketed the school. They carried placards that read: “We want a new school or none at all” and “Down with tar-paper shacks.”

On April 24, student leaders walked to the Farmville courthouse. They met with school superintendent T. J. McLlwaine. The superintendent told the students nothing could be done until they returned to class. The students refused to reenter the school until May 7.

Johns wrote some years later, “I was unhappy with the school facility and its inadequacies … it wasn’t fair that we had such poor facility, equipment, etc., when our white counterparts enjoyed science laboratories, a huge facility, separate gym dept., etc.”

On April 25, two attorneys from the NAACP met with the students. These attorneys, Oliver W. Hill and Spottswood Robinson III, agreed to represent the students. However, these lawyers would only represent them if students agreed to be part of a suit to strike down segregation instead of suing for a new segregated school. Johns and her fellow students agreed and became key plaintiffs in the Brown vs. the Board of Education case. The decision demanding desegregation of schools came in 1954.

On May 9, 1955, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals set Sept. 1 as the deadline for Prince Edward County to integrate its schools. On June 26, the county board of supervisors voted to cut off revenues to the public schools. The schools did not open as scheduled on Sept. 10, and the county left the schools closed for the next five years. White students attended Prince Edward Academy, a private school funded by state-approved tuition grants and donations from supporters of segregation.

In February of 2017, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe renamed the Ninth Street office building, once was the unofficial base of operations for the Byrd machine. This political machine produced a string of governors who followed Harry F. Byrd Sr.

The Ninth Street office building was renamed the Barbara Johns Building. The name change honored the efforts of the 16-year-old who led a strike at her school to protest the poor facilities provided for African American students and ended up being part of the Supreme Court decision that struck down racial segregation in public schools across this nation.

Mike Parker is a columnist for the Neuse News. You can reach him at mparker16@gmail.com.