True Left

RICHMOND — A statue of a Black teenage girl who dared challenge segregation in Virginia schools could soon stand beside George Washington in the U.S. Capitol.

Barbara Rose Johns, who as a 16-year-old in 1951 led a protest of poor learning conditions for Black students in Farmville and helped dismantle school segregation nationwide, has been chosen by an advisory commission to replace Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee as one of two figures representing Virginia in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.