4. Barbara Johns: Sparking a Student-Led Strike
At just 16, Barbara Johns organized a student strike at her segregated high school in Farmville, Virginia, in 1951. Fed up with inadequate facilities and inequality, she led her classmates in protest, demanding better conditions. Barbara’s bold action was instrumental in sparking one of the five lawsuits combined into the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case. Her leadership showed that teens could ignite real change in the fight for civil rights (via National Museum of African American History and Culture).
