Summary of Nancy MacLean's Democracy in Chains

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 In 1950, a teenager named Barbara Johns led a strike by her fellow high school students in Prince Edward County to demand a better school. The niece of the Reverend Vernon Johns, the radical minister who later mentored the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. , Barbara never consulted her Montgomery uncle about the strike. #2 The seed was planted by Miss Davenport, who wanted to build a better black high school. But she knew that a strike could put her own and perhaps others’ jobs at risk, so she insisted on absolute secrecy and orderly conduct. #3 The students went on strike, and marched into town to protest their lack of a new school facility. They were eventually joined by the local NAACP, who took on the case. #4 The students’ strike was successful, and the school board ended separate education. But the white elite still wanted revenge, and they took it out on the families who had supported the lawsuit.