Commission approves civil rights activist Barbara Rose Johns statue for U.S. Capitol
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RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- The statue of civil rights leader Barbara Rose Johns has been approved by the Commission for Historical Statues in the U.S. Capitol, which is expected to be unveiled as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection by the end of the year.
The Commission unanimously approved a bronze statue of Johns for installation at the U.S. Capitol during a public meeting on Wednesday, June 18, in the Reynolds Leadership Center on the second floor of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, located at 428 N. Arthur Ashe Boulevard in Richmond.
The statue of Johns will replace the statue of Robert E. Lee, which was removed in January 2020, after the commission reviewed a list of names of historical figures submitted by Virginians.
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The statue is to be reviewed at the federal level by the Architect of the Capitol and approved by the Joint Committee on the Library before it's expected to be unveiled as part of the Statuary Hall Collection later this year, according to a release from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
Johns, who was born in 1935, became known for her civil rights activism when she was a 16-year-old student at segregated Robert Russa Moton High School in Prince Edward County; in 1951, led a student walkout to protest the “overcrowded and dilapidated facilities at the school,” which were inferior to those at the county’s high school for white students.
During Wednesday's public meeting, the Department of Historic Resources director, Julie Langan, ex officio member of the Commission, forwarded photos of the statue to the Architect of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., for review.
The department said that after final approval from the Joint Committee on the Library, Johns' statue will head to the U.S. Capitol for installation. It currently resides in the sculptor's studio in Maryland.
There will be a ceremony and reception taking place in November or December 2025. As per the release, Langan, Johns' family members and other stakeholders are working to plan the event.
The committee approved the commission’s request to erect a statue of Johns in the U.S. Capitol in 2021.
For more information about the Commission and its decision-making process regarding Johns' statue, visit the Commission’s website.
