Johnnie Carr

Johnnie Rebecca Daniels Carr (January 26, 1911 – February 22, 2008) was a leader in the civil rights movement in the United States from 1955 until her death.

Personal life Carr was born on January 26, 1911, to parents John and Annie Richmond Daniels as the youngest of six children. When she was nine, Carr’s father died; following his death, the family, now guided by a single mother, moved away from their farm to the nearby city of Montgomery, Alabama. The family sought better educational opportunities than the six-month school year in their previous rural residence, and Carr attended two private schools: the Bredding School and Alice L. White’s Industrial School for Girls, also known as the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls. At the Industrial School, which Carr claims was “started by whites from the north," young Carr met and befriended young Rosa Louise McCauley, who eventually grew up to be civil rights icon Rosa Parks.

In 1944, Carr, along with her husband Arlam Carr, Rosa Parks, Raymond Parks, E.D. Nixon, E. G. Jackson, and Irene West, organized to defend Recy Taylor, a woman who was gang raped by six white men after attending a church service at Rock Hill Holiness Church in Abbeville, Alabama. This core of activists, who canvassed neighborhoods, raised money, and sent petitions and postcards to the governor and attorney general of Alabama, later became part of the movement that supported Martin Luther King Jr.

Carr v. The Montgomery Board of Education In 1964, the Carrs challenged the segregation of Montgomery County schools with their thirteen-year-old son, Arlam Jr., serving as the litigant. The Montgomery County school system was forced to integrate with the use of a choice form that allowed students and parents to decide which Montgomery school to attend.

Carr died of a stroke at the age of 97. Superintendent of the county, John Dilworth, lauded Carr for her work encouraging active education and community membership in students. The school also runs the Carr Magnet Program, which challenges advanced students with more rigorous study.

The Town of Carrboro, North Carolina is considering changing its namesake from White Supremacist Julian Carr to Johnnie Carr, who was born the same year the town was incorporated.