Top GOPers Applaud Replacement of Lee Statue in U.S. Capitol With One of Unknown Civil Rights “Heroine”

Top Republicans beclowned themselves again yesterday when they cheered the replacement of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s statue in the U.S. Capitol’s Emancipation Hall with the statue of a black girl unknown to 99.99 percent of Americans.

GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson, of the former Confederate state of Louisiana, spoke at the unveiling of civil rights “heroine” Barbara Rose Johns’ effigy, which took the place left empty when radical leftists jettisoned Lee in late 2020 after nearly a year of agitation. Also crowing about the statue were Virginia’s GOP Governor Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares.

Johns’ claim to fame is leading a walkout in high school to protest segregation and filing a lawsuit that became part of the Brown v. Board of Education legal battle. Lee’s claim to fame is that his family’s history is Virginia’s history.

Critics fumed on X.

The Walkout

Wikipedia offers a rather interesting account of Johns’ “strike,” which involved two lies.

“Barbara Johns met with several classmates and they all agreed to help organize a student strike,” the entry explains:

On April 23, 1951, the plan Barbara Johns initiated was put into action. The principal of the school was tricked into leaving by being told that some students were downtown causing trouble. While the principal was away, Barbara Johns forged a memo from that principal telling the teachers to bring their classes to a special assembly. The teachers brought their classes and left the assembly per request. She then delivered a speech to all 450 students, revealing her plans for a student strike in protest of the unequal conditions of the black and white schools. The students agreed to participate, and on that day they marched down to the county courthouse to make officials aware of the large difference in quality between the white and black schools.

The result was a lawsuit that became one of the four cases that were part of the Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court case that ended segregation in Southern schools in 1954. Pettifoggery and unethical subterfuge, along with the notorious “doll test,” ensured that 9-0 decision.

The Unveiling

Thus did Johnson and his congressional colleagues unveil the statue.

“Today we are here to honor one of America’s true trailblazers, a woman who embodied the essence of the American spirit in her fight for liberty and justice and equal treatment under the law,” Johnson said. “The indomitable Barbara Rose Johns.”

Like hundreds of millions of other Americans, Johnson had probably never heard of Johns until it came time for the statue to replace Lee.

Youngkin and Miyares chimed in on X.

“Today we gathered in Emancipation Hall of the U.S. Capitol to dedicate the Barbara Rose Johns statue, to honor her legacy as a trailblazer, and ensure her story of courage and conscience is a story for generations to come,” Youngkin gushed:

You can’t tell the story of Virginia, or the story of how our nation overcame segregation, without telling the story of Barbara Rose Johns.

In fact, Americans have heard the story about desegregation since 1954 without knowing Johns.

Miyares was positively effusive.

“Today, as Barbara Johns takes her place in the US Capitol, we honor a young Virginian whose courage helped change the nation,” he enthused. Johns’ trickery in organizing the walkout, Miyares reminded readers, preceded civil rights agitation in Selma and Montgomery, Alabama, and even civil rights “heroes” Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King.

“When civil rights attorney Oliver Hill (and one of my legal heroes) agreed to take Barbara’s case, he insisted the remedy sought be the end of segregation itself,” Miyares continued:

That case became part of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education, where 75% of the plaintiffs were Virginians.

As Attorney General, it is not lost on me that the building that once served as the Hotel Richmond, the nerve center of massive resistance, is now the Barbara Johns Building, home to our Office of Civil Rights.

I’m proud that Barbara Johns represents Virginia in the US Capitol.

Reaction

Miyares might be proud, but others were not.

“Nobody knows who this is… and no amount of explanation will cover up the fact that General Lee will be a beloved Virginian forever,” NOVA Campaigns replied:

Capitulating to the progressive, Marxist revisionism of the VA Democrats won’t do you any good for your last weeks in office… Jay Jones is coming for you anyways.

Miyares lost his reelection bid to Jay Jones, who fantasized about murdering a GOP Virginia House Speaker and watching his children die.

“We will not forget your cowardice and betrayal,” BCM enjoyer wrote over a photograph of the melting statue of Robert E. Lee that was removed from Charlottesville, Virginia.

Wrote Skepticinthedell:

This is bull***t pandering and you know it. We want our statues back!

Youngkin fared no better.

“You’re a snivelling coward who has aided and abetted the destruction of what remains of your state’s heritage,” Will Tanner wrote, “all for plaudits from cretins who hate you.”

X user Jefferson Davis offered Youngkin a correction:

No, the story of segregation without her has been told for over 50 years. Rather, you can’t tell the history of Virginia without Robert E. Lee. 

You are as stupid as your political opponents.

“You can’t tell the story of Virginia or the story of our nation without Robert E. Lee,” Frankie Stockes replied. “But that didn’t stop you from bending over for anti-White psychos and participating in his replacement.”

Lee’s Historical Background

Lee’s statue was removed in December 2020 pursuant to far-left Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s request in January that year. Famous for appearing in black face and advocating infanticide, Northam also ordered the removal of Lee’s statue on Monument Avenue in Richmond after permitting far-left radicals to vandalize it during the George Floyd Hoax summer of riots.

No matter how many statues leftists destroy, though, they can’t change history. Lee’s family was important not only in Virginia, but also in Maryland.

Thomas Lee was a burgess when Virginia was a Colony, while brothers Francis Lightfoot Lee and Richard Henry Lee signed the Declaration of Independence. Their brother Thomas Ludwell Lee edited the Virginia Declaration of Rights. 

Robert E. Lee’s father was Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, a daring cavalry commander during the American Revolution. Later, he was governor of Virginia.

In Maryland, Lee family members include Thomas Sim Lee, twice governor through five one-year terms in the late 18th century, and Blair Lee III, lieutenant governor of Maryland in the 1970s and a direct descendant of Richard Henry Lee.

Enthusiasts of the new statue cite no similar history for Barbara Rose Johns. 

Wrote podcaster Matt Walsh:

Nobody knows who “Barbara Rose Johns” is. Robert E Lee was about a million times more historically significant. He was also a million times more honorable and courageous than all of the politicians applauding in this video.

Insultingly, Johns’ statue resembles a white girl.