  The lowest eigenenergies of few, strongly interacting electrons in a
one--dimensional ring are studied in the presence of an impurity barrier. The
persistent current $\:I\:$, periodic in an Aharonov--Bohm flux penetrating the
ring, is strongly influenced by the electron spin. The impurity does not remove
discontinuities in $\:I\:$ at zero temperature. The total electron spin of the
ground state oscillates with the flux. Strong electron--electron interaction
enhances $\:I\:$, albeit not up to the value of the clean ring which itself is
smaller than $\:I\:$ for free electrons. $\:I\:$ disappears on a temperature
scale that depends exponentially on the electron density. In the limit of very
strong interaction the response to small fluxes is diamagnetic.
