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April 19, 2006 -- John Stokes, one of the organizers of the 1951 high-school student walk-out in Prince Edward County, Va., will speak at the University of Virginia on April 26 at 4 p.m. in the Newcomb Hall Art Gallery. Stokes and a group of schoolmates met in secret to plan the protest over the deplorable conditions at their school. They later enlisted the legal help of the NAACP, and their lawsuit eventually was folded into the U.S. Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education.
When Stokes attended Moton High School in Farmville, Va., the school was overcrowded with more than 450 students in a building designed to hold 180. The county built three tarpaper structures as a remedy, delaying the construction of a new building for the blacks-only high school. Understanding that “separate” did not mean “equal,” Stokes, his sister, Carrie, Barbara Johns (niece of civil rights activist Rev. Vernon Johns) and others staged a strike.
Stokes’ talk, which is free and open to the public, was arranged after he met a former University of Virginia student of Curry School of Education assistant professor Selena Cozart, who teaches a University Seminar on the legacy of the Brown decision. Stokes told Cozart that he was so impressed with the young man, he decided to see if he could visit Cozart’s class to tell the students about his experience.
They need to know about this history, Cozart said Stokes told her.
Before the Brown lawsuit concluded with the Supreme Court ordering desegregation, Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors built a new Moton High School. The old school became an elementary school, and eventually it became a National Historic Landmark — the Robert Russa Moton Museum and Center for the Study of Civil Rights in Education opened its doors 50 years later in 2001.
Stokes continued his education and eventually became a school principal in Baltimore until he retired in 1994.
Stokes’ talk is sponsored by the Curry School of Education, the Office of the Vice President and Chief Officer for Diversity and Equity and the Center for the Study of Race and the Law. Assistant professor of education Selena Cozart organized the event for the University Seminar she teaches on the legacy of the Brown decision.
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