Edwilda Gustava Isaac ( Allen; 1937 – 2022) was an American civil rights pioneer. She participated in the 1951 walkout of the segregated

Robert Russa Moton High School The Robert Russa Moton Museum (popularly known as the Moton Museum or Moton) is a historic site and museum in Farmville, Virginia, Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia. It is located in the former Robert Russa Moton High School, considered "t ...

to protest unequal conditions.

Biography

Edwilda Gustava Allen was born in 1937, the elder daughter of Vera and Edward Allen. As a teenager she attended the

Farmville, Virginia Farmville is a town in Prince Edward and Cumberland counties in the U.S. state of Virginia. The population was 8,216 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Prince Edward County. Farmville developed near the headwaters of the Appomattox R ...

. The school, was built in 1939 and by 1951 the segregated, Black school was inadequate to serve the student's needs. Among the problems were overcrowding and outdated textbooks. In 1951, Isaac, then an eighth grader, helped stage a walkout, led by

Barbara Johns Barbara Rose Johns Powell (March 6, 1935 – September 28, 1991) was a leader in the American civil rights movement. On April 23, 1951, at the age of 16, Powell led a student strike for equal education at R.R. Moton High School in Farmville ...

, of students to protest conditions. The students marched to the courthouse, and Isaac was a member of the group of students that entered the courthouse to present their grievances. The walkout brought attention to the situation at the school to the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

, this in turn led to the court case ''

Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County ''Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County'' (Docket number: Civ. A. No. 1333; Case citation: 103 F. Supp. 337 (1952)) was one of the five cases combined into ''Brown v. Board of Education'', the famous case in which the U.S. Supreme C ...

'' which in turn became part of ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregat ...

'', the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

case establishing that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Isaac went on to attend

Alverno College Alverno College is a private Roman Catholic women's college in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. History Chartered in 1887 as St. Joseph's Normal School, Alverno became Alverno Teachers College in 1936. It adopted its current name in 1946. Academics Alve ...

in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, became a music teacher and married. She eventually returned to Farmville where she continued her teaching career. She was a member of the '' Martha E. Forrester Council of Women''. The Council worked to turn the Moton School into a museum and establish the building as a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

. She died on January 21, 2022. In 2016, Isaac was honored by the

Virginia Women in History Virginia Women in History was an annual program sponsored by the Library of Virginia that honored Virginia women, living and dead, for their contributions to their community, region, state, and nation. The program began in 2000 under the aegis of th ...

, sponsored by the

Library of Virginia The Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, is the library agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It serves as the archival agency and the reference library for Virginia's seat of government. The Library moved into a new building in 1997 and i ...

and Virginia Foundation for Women.

References

External links

Interview of Edwilda Allen Issac
in 2000 for The Ground Beneath Our Feet {{DEFAULTSORT:Isaac, Edwilda Gustava Allen 1937 births 2022 deaths 20th-century African-American women Activists for African-American civil rights African-American history of Virginia School desegregation pioneers Youth activists Date of birth missing Place of birth missing Place of death missing