About This Website

The Barbara Johns Story: Fighting for Equality in America’s Public Schools is an interactive documentary by executive producer, writer, and director Richard Wormser, and the Robert Russa Moton Museum, to teach history narratively, integrating the C3 Teachers Inquiry Design Model for middle school and high school social studies curricula.

Richard Wormser’s Peabody Award-winning, PBS documentary film series The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow (2002) has been adapted to create this transmedia, educational website, centering on a student strike led by 16-year-old Barbara Johns in 1951 at the segregated Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia. The story is primarily told by former students who participated in the historic protest that led to the Supreme Court declaring legal segregation in public education unconstitutional. Included is a rare interview with Barbara Johns herself.

Numerous testimonial interviews in short films, archival photographs and artwork, original illustrations, maps, brief texts, primary documentation, music, and interactive features combine to create a compelling historical narrative in a modular format for teachers. An inquiry arc deepens student understanding of the content and prepares them to take informed action in the real world, inspired by the spirit of the teenage civil rights pioneer Barbara Johns. 

For more information about how this website was developed and how to use it, please visit the Instructional Support for Teachers, Bibliography, Credits, and Privacy Policy.