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.
William Powell and became Barbara Rose Johns Powell, raised five children and was a librarian in the Philadelphia Public Schools.
The statue shows the young Johns standing to the side of a lectern, holding a tattered book over her head.
The statue replaces one of Lee that was removed in December 2020 from the Capitol, where it had represented Virginia for 111 years.
The Johns piece is part of the National Statuary Hall Collection at the Capitol, in which each state can contribute two statues.
In December 2020, a state commission recommended replacing Lee's statue with a statue of Johns.
Johns is also featured in a sculpture at the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial outside the state Capitol in Richmond. »