AG Jones hosted a program to commemorate the anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that reshaped the course of American education by denying the premise that separate education for white and Black students was equal. The Office of the Attorney General is housed in the historic Barbara Johns Building, which is named after a brave young woman who led a student strike at her segregated high school in Farmville, Virginia in 1951. Barbara Johns’ case was consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education and represented the only student-led protest case in the suit.  

“This history is personal to me. As a child, my father, Judge Jerrauld Jones, helped integrate Ingleside Elementary School in Norfolk, Virginia. History arrived before he was old enough to fully understand its weight, and in the face of that responsibility he showed tremendous courage. The Commonwealth was central to this moment, as young Virginians put their education, safety, and lives on the line to push our nation closer towards the promise it was always meant to fulfill. Progress is possible when people have the courage to demand better from their institutions and from one another.” – AG Jones