Caribbean Life, NOVEMBER 1-7, 2019 11
siege on that town. Soldiers, as
well as their commanders, were
enthused by Joan´s forceful personality
and under her command
they succeeded in crushing the
English siege. Joan of Arc´s ardor
and sense of righteousness turned
the longstanding Anglo-French
conflict into a religious war. She
succeeded to lead French troops
to swift victories, resulting in
Charles´s consecration as French
ruler. After years of humiliating
defeats, which had demoralized
and discredited military and civil
leadership, the actions and message
of an illiterate girl succeeded
in boosting French morale
and paved the way for a decisive
French victory in the Hundred
Years’ War. However, before that,
Joan had in 1430 been captured
by her enemies, put on trial by
a pro-English bishop, declared
guilty of heresy and burned at
the stake, dying at nineteen years
of age.4 I do not know if Joan of
Arc´s far from peaceful efforts
were recommendable, but she
made old men listen to her and
her achievements changed world
history.
More unknown than Joan of
Arc´s endevours is the bravery
of another 16-year-old girl. In
1951, Barbara Johns convinced
her schoolmates and teachers to
organize a strike to protest the
substandard facilities at her segregated
school in Farmville, Virginia.
While the school principal
was away, Barbara Johns forged a
memo ordering teachers to bring
their classes to a special assembly.
She then delivered a speech
revealing her plans for a strike in
protest of the unequal conditions
of black and white schools. The
same day, 450 students and teachers
staged a protest in front of
Farmville´s courthouse. Barbara´s
actions attracted the attention of
the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP), which took her case to
court, using it as evidence that
segregated schools are unconstitutional.
Because she was a teenager
at the time, Barbara Johns’s
contribution to civil rights has
generally been overlooked.
Had the student strike begun
ten or fifteen years later, Barbara
Johns would have become
something of a phenomenon in
the public media. In that era,
however, the case remained muffled
in the white consciousness,
and the schoolchild origins of
the lawsuit were lost on nearly all
Negroes outside Prince Edward
County. This was 1951 … television
was an infant, and the very
word “teenager” had only recently
entered common use. The idea
that non-adults of any race might
play a leading role in political
events had simply failed to register
on anyone.5
Barbara Johns´s struggle was
far from being safe and harmless.
She was harassed daily and
the Ku Klux Klan burned a cross
in her parents´ yard, fearing for
her safety they sent her to Montgomery
Alabama to live with her
uncle.
The force and dedication of
young women, particularly those
suffering from a vulnerable position,
are often ignored, even
mocked and in the worse cases
met with violence. The fate of two
young Nobel Peace Prize winners
bear testimony of this.
world, human mobility
both drives and is driven
by development progress,
albeit progress that
is uneven and not fast
enough to meet people’s
aspirations.
It confirms that people
will move in the pursuit
of larger freedoms and
opportunities, including
through irregular means
if they believe they must,
to create a space for themselves
and their families
in the kind of world the
17 Sustainable Development
Goals are designed
to help us all attain.
That they travel
through irregular rather
than regular migration
channels does not
diminish the importance
of their stories. Rather,
it highlights the need to
both expand safe, legal
pathways for migration, in
line with the 2018 Global
Compact for Safe Orderly
and Regular Migration,
and to continue investment
in a future-focused
Africa of socio-economic
and political choice and
opportunity.
Although migration in
all its forms is sometimes
painted as an emergency
– a ‘lose-lose’ situation for
everyone — it is actually
a long-term development
trend: one that started
long before there were
legal frameworks or sovereign
borders to cross
and one that will continue
long into the future,
accelerated in today’s globalized,
hyper-connected
societies.
Understanding how to
harness the potential of
human mobility to accelerate
human development
– in the countries
that migrants move from
and move to – starts by
understanding the determination
that drives people
to scale metaphorical
and physical fences
towards a better life.
OP-EDS
Young women trigger great changes Irregular migration
Continued from Page 10 Continued from Page 10
©2019 New York Lottery
BL ACK T I TANIUM I S BIG.
$ 1 0 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 B I G.
PLEASE PLAY RESPONSIBLY.
You must be 18 years or older to purchase a lottery ticket.
Struggling with a gambling addiction? Call the HOPEline 1-877-8-HOPENY (1-877-846-7369)
or text HOPENY (467369).* NYLResponsiblePlay.com *Standard text rates may apply.
/NYLResponsiblePlay.com