Edwilda Gustava Allen Isaac

R. R. Moton High School Typing Classroom, 1951 used as Defendant's Exhibit No. 75 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 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 Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia. 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 Among the problems were overcrowding and outdated textbooks.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, 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.

In 2016, Isaac was honored by the Virginia Women in History, sponsored by the Library of Virginia and Virginia Foundation for Women.