R.R. Moton High School, an all-black high school in
Farmville, Virginia, suffered from terrible conditions due to underfunding. Built in 1939 to hold 180 students, by 1940 it was educating over 450. The school did not have a gymnasium, a cafeteria, or an auditorium with fixed seats, and students and student athletes often re-used old, worn books, equipment, and athletic uniforms handed down from the nearby white school. County officials handled the overcrowding problem not by expanding or rebuilding the school, but by building temporary classroom structures. These were unevenly heated by potbelly stoves, covered by leaky roofs that had the students using umbrellas inside when it rained, and sometimes mistaken for chicken coops by people who didn't know any different. Teachers and students did not have desks or blackboards, and due to overcrowding, some students had to take classes in an immobilized, decrepit
school bus parked outside the main school building. Some classes were held in "three temporary tar-paper shacks" built to house the overflow at the school. It was so cold during the winter that teachers and students had to keep their coats on. The school's bus was said to be hand-me-down from the white school and was driven by the history teacher. Led by the Reverend Francis Griffin, who served as both President of the local NAACP and as Chair of the school's PTA, the school's leadership requested new facilities but were denied by the school board. In response, on April 23, 1951, a 16-year-old student named
Barbara Rose Johns, who was the niece of
Vernon Johns, the famous black Baptist preacher and civil rights leader, covertly organized a student general strike. She forged notes to teachers telling them to bring their students to the auditorium for a special announcement. When the school's students showed up, Johns took the stage and persuaded the school to strike to protest poor school conditions. Over 450 walked out and marched to the homes of members of the school board, who refused to see them and instead threatened them with
expulsions. This led to a two-week protest from students. Meanwhile the headmaster had been told over the phone that the police were about to arrest two of his students at the bus station. He failed to recognize this call as a ruse, so he went to town. Only thereafter were the notes calling the special assembly delivered to the classrooms. When the headmaster returned, he tried to talk the students out of striking, but they refused. Led by Johns, the students requested help from the NAACP's Special Counsel for the Southeastern Region of the United States. The NAACP lawyers agreed to represent the students in court, if the students would agree to seek an end to school segregation altogether and an overturning of the "separate but equal" judicial doctrine that had been established by
Plessy vs. Fergusen and had allowed for educational segregation over the last sixty years, rather than merely suing for new, improved school facilities. After some consideration, the students agreed to this. ==Trials==