US Capitol statue of teen civil rights leader Barbara Rose Johns to fill Robert E. Lee's place
Source: AP
Updated 12:02 AM EST, December 16, 2025
Starting Tuesday, the U.S. Capitol will display a statue of a teenaged Barbara Rose Johns as she protested poor conditions at her segregated Virginia high school, a pointed replacement for a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that was removed several years ago.
The unveiling ceremony of the statue representing Virginia in the Capitol will take place in Emancipation Hall, featuring Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Virginias congressional delegation.
Johns was 16 years old in 1951 when she led a student strike for equal education at R.R. Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia. The students cause gained the support of NAACP lawyers, who filed a lawsuit that would become one of the five cases that the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed in Brown v. Board of Education. The high courts landmark 1954 decision declared separate but equal public schools unconstitutional.
Johns later married the Rev. William Powell and became Barbara Rose Johns Powell, raised five children and was a librarian in the Philadelphia Public Schools. She died at 56 in 1991.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/barbara-rose-johns-statue-capitol-7601aed0b9b6a6ab1f307b1ccccd289f
The below is a scale model of what will replace the traitor Lee's statue in the Capitol Statuary Hall - https://encyclopediavirginia.org/ms-johns-goes-to-washington/

Maquette of Barbara Johns statue by Steven Weitzman. Photo by Julie Langan courtesy of
the Virginia Commission for Historical Statues in the United States Capitol.
45 will probably direct MAGA Mike to remove it as "DEI" after it is unveiled, and then put the traitor back, not caring what VA thinks.
marble falls
(71,104 posts)flashman13
(2,040 posts)Lee might not be back, but Trump will find some white Repug man to replace Barbara Johns.
wolfie001
(7,101 posts)But the fat orange imbecile will have a conniption fit over it. Most racist and hateful US pResident in our history. More racist than Andrew Jackson who is a distant second.
MadameButterfly
(3,746 posts)under the current politics with the characters involved, but udos to the artist, not only for the expressive qualities but the feat of physics. I didn't know you could have a long skinny arm holding a big book. I guess there is steel in there and enough weight in the pedestal to stabilize it. Amazing.
dsc
(53,323 posts)I think it is the Congressional delegation chooses but the article makes it sound like the governor does.
MadameButterfly
(3,746 posts)BumRushDaShow
(165,874 posts)The article is from 2023 - https://encyclopediavirginia.org/ms-johns-goes-to-washington/
The other statue for VA in the Hall is of the native Virginian - former President Gen. George Washington.
Deep State Witch
(12,576 posts)Replacing Lee with a civil rights pioneer. That's got to frost his nuts.
Aristus
(71,671 posts)He's gonna SHIT!
BumRushDaShow
(165,874 posts)(this was around the time of the George Floyd/BLM protests)