Contrasting Barbara Johns Day With Today’s Student Protests

Today in Virginia is Barbara Johns Day. The General Assembly designated April 23rd as a day to honor the Civil Rights leader from Farmville who in 1951 led a protest against the terrible conditions of her segregated all-black school. Her efforts were eventually part of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case which desegregated schools.

The Johns protest was student led. Johns herself was a sixteen year old junior in High School. She and her classmates stood-up against unfair conditions and advocated for more rights, better treatment, and equality. It is just and right for Virginia to honor our hometown hero.

Comparing Johns’ effort in 1951 to the student led walkouts of today and all we see are stark contrasts. Again, the Johns protest was about more rights, better treatment, and equality. Today’s student led protests against gun ownership specifically advocate for less rights, more authoritative government regulation, and an unequal playing field.

Students today are saying that the 2nd Amendment gives people too much freedom; a freedom we cannot handle, so they advocate for less rights and more regulation. That’s a stark contrast from the Johns protest. Students today want only the government and those wealthy enough to afford paid armed security to be able to own guns, which would create a tremendous unequal playing field. That’s another stark contrast from the Johns protest.

And to top-off these stark contrasts was a troubling situation that happened on Friday in Charlottesville. Students walked out of school to protest gun ownership by marching over to the Free Speech Wall at the Downtown Mall. A man who was there wrote on the Free Speech Wall “protect the 2nd Amendment.” A student then erased it. That’s right. A student thought it appropriate to erase a message that was sticking up for Constitutional Rights from the, wait for the name again, Free Speech Wall. No other action could be a greater contrast from the student led protest organized by Barbara Johns in 1951.

Trying to frame what is happening against the 2nd Amendment right now as the “Civil Rights movement of today” is an ignorant insult to the real Civil Rights heroes who fought for freedom against oppression. Kids, stay in school and study history. There is so much to learn.

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