The Girl from the Tar Paper School

The Girl from the Tar Paper School mixes biography, social history and archival images to tell the gripping story of sixteen-year-old Barbara Rose Johns. In 1951, witnessing the unfair conditions in her racially segregated high school, Barbara led a walk-out--the first public protest of its kind demanding racial equality in the US--jumpstarting the American Civil Rights movement. Her school's case went all the way to the Supreme Court and helped outlaw segregation as part of Brown vs. Board of Education. Barbara grew up to eventually become a librarian, but never sought notoriety for her earlier efforts, in fact her colleagues never knew. The book is illustrated with family photos, school and town photographs, as well as archives from her classmates and local and national news media. It includes a bibliography and index.