An Encounter with Greatness

I was 18 years of age in the Summer of 1967 - the time that has come to be referred to as the "Long Hot Summer." 

There were 159 incidents of racial violence around the United States - sometimes referred to as riots, sometimes referred to as rebellions.

From July 12th to July 17th, violence broke out in the City of Newark. 26 people died, 727 people were injured, and 1,465 people were arrested. From July 23rd the July 28th violence broke out in the City of Detroit. It was a time when people began to question whether non-violence had run its course.

In response to all this violence, in the middle of the Detroit riot, President Lyndon Johnson on July 28, 1967 issued Executive Order 11365, establishing a commission to investigate the causes of these disturbances. The Commission was commonly referred to by the name of its chairman, former Illinois governor Otto Kerner.

One of the people I worked with in the summer of 1967 was John Lewis who, among other things, was on the board of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In August of 1967, John Lewis invited me to join him in Atlanta for the SCLC’s Annual Meeting. It was my first opportunity to spend any real time at Atlanta, other than to change planes. For an 18-year-old college student, this was pretty heady stuff - having the opportunity to spend time with people who had dedicated their lives to bringing about the kind of change which was so badly needed in this country, and particularly in the south - people like Reverend Al Sampson, Hosea Williams, Ralph Abernathy and, of course, Martin Luther King Jr.

The theme of this conference was “Where do We Go from Here?” and that was the theme that Dr. King took up in his Presidential Address. He stressed the fact that he thought non-violence was still a viable tool to bring about social change. He also stressed the importance of redirecting the Movement to focus on issues of economic justice and systemic change:

“When I say question the whole society, it means ultimately coming to see that the problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation and the problem of war all tied together. These are the triple evils that are interrelated. . . . One day, we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."

In December of 1967, Dr. King unveiled the SCLC's plan to conduct a Poor People's Campaign that following year. The campaign would bring together poor people of all races and from across the country to a new March on Washington, to demand better jobs, better homes, better education, and better lives and the ones they were then living. In the early part of 1968, Rev. Sampson paid a visit to Bard College for the specific purpose of generating support for the Poor People's Campaign and, during that visit, he asked me to help organize support for the Campaign in the Mid-Hudson area, which I agreed to do.

On February 29 1968, after seven months of investigation, the Kerner Commission issued its Final Report. The report concluded that the insurrections of the previous summer were caused by black frustration at the lack of economic opportunity. In its most famous passage, the Report warned that our nation was rapidly approaching two societies - one black one white - separate and unequal. The Report called for the creation of jobs, an end to de facto segregation, the establishment of government programs that provided needed services, the hiring of more diverse and sensitive police forces, and the investment of billions of dollars in new safe sanitary and desegregated housing. Dr. King's response was to call on the nation to adopt the Commission’s recommendations.

In the Spring of 1968, there was an effort to organize a union among sanitation workers in the city of Memphis Tennessee. Dr. King aligned with a struggle of the poor and black sanitation workers in Memphis. He suggested that their struggle for dignity was a dramatization of the issues taken up by the Poor People's Campaign: a fight by capable hard workers against dehumanization, discrimination and poverty wages in the richest country in the world.

One day Rev. Sampson called me and told me that Dr. King was coming to do a tour of New Jersey. He asked me to come and help support that tour. That's how I came to spend the day doing advance work for Dr. King on March 27, 1968.

This tour was pretty heavily covered in press reports, so we have a pretty good record of what happened.

The first stop was Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, where Dr. King held a press conference and explained the purpose of the Poor People's Campaign.

The next stop was Queen of Angels, where Dr. King thanked Monsignor Thomas Carley for making space available for the SCLC staff.

Then the party proceeded downtown for a luncheon with representatives of the Greater Newark Chamber of Commerce.

After lunch, Dr. King paid a surprise visit to Spirit House. There Dr. King visited and paid respects to the playwright known as Leroy Jones, who later became known as Amiri Baraka. Despite their philosophical differences, they talked about the need for a united front.

The next stop was Southside High (now known as Shabazz), where Dr. King spoke for 20 minutes to a crowd of 1,200 students. With the recent civil disturbances in Newark fresh in everyone's minds, Dr. King urged the students to reject the popular mantra of “burn baby burn,” and instead embrace another mantra – “learn baby learn” – which would take them on a path toward “earn baby earn.”

At the Community Baptist Church in Paterson, a thousand people greeted Dr. King outside the sanctuary and another 500 people heard him inside.

At Metropolitan AME Zion Church in Jersey City, Dr. King spoke to a crowd estimated at 2,000.

Several hundred more people were on hand to cheer him at the next stop, Union Baptist Church in Orange.

He also visited Colonnade Apartments.

He concluded his tour at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Newark where, despite being two hours late, the motorcade was met by 1,500 people at the curb. He again urged the crowd to support the Poor People's Campaign.

At every stop, Dr. King received a warm reception. He promised that this would not be his last visit to New Jersey – that he would be back

Abyssinian was not the last stop on the schedule. At some point, everyone realized that this whole tour was running late. Dr. King’s speeches began to be prefaced with “I would rather be Martin Luther King Jr. late than the late Martin Luther King Jr.” People in the inner circle began to realize that we were would not be able to make all of the scheduled stops. 

Eventually, Rev. Sampson and I were asked to go ahead to some of the venues that Dr. King would not be able to reach. Our job was to explain the delay, extend everyone's apologies, and try to encourage folks to overlook their disappointment and nevertheless support the goals of the Poor People's Campaign.

We now know that, despite his promise to return to New Jersey for another visit, Dr. King never returned. He also never got a chance to lead a Second March on Washington.

The next day, March 28^th, Dr. King and Dr. Abernathy flew to Memphis to take part in a march to support sanitation workers. This particular march got out of hand. There were reports of violence on the part of some of the participants.

All of a sudden, people began to raise new questions about the legitimacy and viability of non-violence, and about SCLC's ability to conduct a disciplined non-violent March. If people began to lose faith in SCLC's ability to lead a non-violent march, the future of the Poor People's Campaign would be in doubt. And so, so whatever plans Dr. King may have had to focus on the Poor People's Campaign and the New March on Washington, it became clear he would have to spend some more time in Memphis, showing that non-violence still worked, and that the March 28th incident was a fluke.

That's how it happened that Dr. King was in Memphis on April 4th 1968.

So when we gathered on the National Mall later that summer for the extended Second March on Washington, in the venue on the National Mall that became known as Resurrection, City, Dr. King was not with us.

But we carried on.

We carried on because we knew that that was what Dr. King would have wanted us to do.

Copyright © 2018 Charles S. Johnson. All rights reserved.

Atlanta’s Senator Leroy Johnson Honored with Justice Robert Benham Lifetime Achievement Award for Community Service

Senator  Leroy R. Johnson was honored by the State Bar of Georgia and the Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism with the 18th Annual Justice Robert Benham Lifetime Achievement Award for Community Service. Since 1998 these awards have recognized judges and lawyers from the ten judicial districts across Georgia who have made outstanding contributions in the area of community service. The recognition was presented on February 28, 2017.

A legal giant and pioneer, Senator Johnson holds an historic position in Georgia as a civil rights lawyer and the first African-American Senator in Georgia elected since the period of Reconstruction.  Presently, he continues to practice as the owner of Leroy R. Johnson & Associates, P.C., practicing primarily in the areas of probate and estate, criminal, domestic relations and personal injury. He has owned and managed a successful law practice for forty-seven years.

An Atlanta native, Leroy Reginald Johnson was born on July 28, 1928 to Elizabeth Heard and Leroy Johnson.  He graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in 1945 and earned a bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College in 1949 and a master’s degree from Atlanta University (later Clark Atlanta University) in 1951.  He taught social science in the Atlanta school system from 1950 to 1954 before earning a law degree from North Carolina Central University in 1957.  He was admitted to the State Bar of Georgia in 1959.

After receiving his law degree, Johnson became the first African-American hired by the Fulton County Solicitor General’s Office (now the District Attorney’s Office) and worked as a criminal investigator there from 1957 to 1962.  He then started his own practice.

Senator Johnson is well-known for representing many notable civil rights leaders and litigating some of the most noted cases in Georgia history.  In October 1960, in one of Atlanta’s first civil rights demonstrations, black college students conducted mass sit-ins at Rich’s Department Store lunch counters.  Johnson was one of several community leaders, along with business executive Jesse Hill and National Urban League Director Whitney Young, advising the student leaders, including Julian Bond.

Senator Johnson became engaged in public service in the 1960s.  Georgia’s county unit system of allocating seats in the General Assembly was overturned in an historic “one man, one vote” court decision in1962.  The ruling resulted in the creation of a predominantly black senate district in Fulton County, and Johnson won the seat in 1962 making him the first African-American to serve in the Georgia Legislature since 1907.  He was also the first African-American elected to public office in the Southeast that year.  During his first session in 1963, Johnson’s senate colleagues included another freshman legislator from Sumter County, Jimmy Carter, and a second-term senator from Towns County named Zell Miller, both who later would become governors of Georgia, with Carter later becoming the United States President and Miller becoming a Georgia United States Senator.

Johnson’s pioneering role in the Georgia Senate was difficult from the outset when employees in the segregated state cafeteria balked at serving food to him during his first year.  He  persevered and became an influential lawmaker, rising to the position of chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee.  He led the way to desegregate many areas of the State Capitol, including its cafeterias and public meeting rooms, and made it possible for young African-Americans to serve as pages and interns during the legislative session.

In June of 1996, the Georgia Senate, by Resolution, authorized that the portrait of Senator Leroy R. Johnson be hung in the State Capital in recognition of his service to the State of Georgia. Senator Johnson became the first black elected official to have his portrait hung in the Senate Chamber and the first living person other than the Governor or Lieutenant Governor to have his portrait hung in the State Capitol.

With a handful of black lawyers practicing in Georgia, Senator Johnson throughout his  many years of the practice of law ably represented famous entertainers including James Brown, Johnny Taylor, Otis Redding, and athletes including Hank Aaron (baseball homerun king), Tom Payne, (Atlanta Hawks basketball player) and Joel Williams (Atlanta Falcons football player).  In 1970, Johnson obtained the boxing license for Muhammad Ali and sponsored and promoted the fight that returned Muhammad Ali to prominence in the boxing world.  After 67 other cities denied the boxing legend a license to fight, Atlanta became the venue for the Ali-Jerry Quarry bout.

During the time when black lawyers and law students were not employed by white firms, Attorney Johnson opened the doors of his practice to several diverse lawyers who ultimately assumed leadership positions and became Federal, Atlanta and Fulton County judges.  Some of these lawyers include: Marvin Arrington, Sr. (City Council President and Fulton County Superior Court Judge), Clarence Cooper (Judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia), Lynwood Jackson (City of Atlanta Traffic Court, Andrew A. Mickles (City of Atlanta Municipal Court Chief Judge). Judge J. L. Jordan and Judge Harris Bostic also served as associates in the early years of his legal practice.

As his nominator related, “Sen. Johnson has also been a mainstay in the advancement of public policy decisions that resonate today.  For example, in 1971, along with then Vice-Mayor Maynard Jackson, he led the effort to ensure fair employment practices and reasonable fares for what was then the new MARTA transportation system.”  Senator Johnson has been and remains very involved in the community.  He serves as co-counsel for the Fulton County Development Authority and Chairman of the Butler Street YMCA Board of Directors.  In addition to the many organizations of which he has been an officer and member, he is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Ebenezer Baptist Church where he has been an active member for 40 years.  He is a member of the Kappa Boule of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

For his many years of public service and involvement in the community, Senator Johnson has received many awards, appointments and honors.  He was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson as Special Ambassador to represent the United States at the Independence Ceremonies in Zanzibar, Africa, December 9, 1963.  He was one of the United States citizens to receive the 1962 Russwurm Award from the National Publishers Association.  He received the NAACP’s 1963 Freedom Award and its 1970 Image Award. He received the Herman S. Prescott Award from the National Boys and Girls Clubs of America in 1971.  In February of 2007, his alma mater, Morehouse College bestowed on him its highest award, the Benjamin E. Mayes “Bennie” Award at its Candle in the Dark Ceremony.  In 2009, he was inducted into the Gate City Bar Hall of Fame.

Senator Johnson married Cleopatra Whittington Johnson, Ph.D., in 1948 and they have one son, Michael Vince Johnson, Ph.D., and three granddaughters, Melani, Melissa and Michelle.

Senator Johnson is one of  ten members of the State Bar of Georgia  who were recognized at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 28, 2017 at the State Bar of Georgia, 104 Marietta Street, N.W. in Atlanta.  The ceremony was free and open to the public but registration was required. For more information on attending the event and to register, contact Ms. Nneka Harris Daniel at 404.225.5040 or nneka@cjcga.org.

Rosamond Taylor Darden Johnson: A Life Well Lived

Rosamond Taylor Darden Johnson left this world peacefully on December 5, 2016. Fittingly, she was surrounded with love by members of her family, as family always took priority in her life.

 

Rosamond was the third of four children born to the union of Alvin Hawkins Darden and Elsie Taylor Darden in Shelbyville, Indiana. She attended the Shelbyville Public Schools and Fisk University.  A life-long lover of literature and art, she worked at Fisk with Arna Bontemps and Langston Hughes in compiling their 1949 anthology, The Poetry of the Negro, 1746-1949. 

On August 15, 1947 she married Charles S. Johnson, Jr.  Following Charles’ graduation from Meharry Medical College and the completion of his post-graduate work at Lincoln Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, the couple settled in Dayton, Ohio. She served her community as a volunteer with institutions as diverse as the Dayton Art Institute and Dayton Children’s Hospital. She was also an active member of the Dayton chapters of the Sophisticates, the Carousels, Jack & Jill, Inc. and The Links, Incorporated, and myriad other clubs and associations.

Rosamond provided a nurturing presence to friends and relatives alike. Successive generations of young people came to regard her as their favorite “aunt” and, in turn, each “niece” or “nephew” came to believe that he or she was her personal favorite.  When she spotted you arriving at family gatherings, she would open her arms wide, wanting to give you a big hug – no words were needed.  To all visitors, she would point with pride at her refrigerator door in Dayton wallpapered with business cards of her children, nieces, nephews and grands. Seldom appearing to think of her own needs, she constantly rejoiced in the successes and accomplishments of those around her, particularly when those accomplishments helped to make the world a better place.

Rosamond was preceded in death by her late husband, Charles S. Johnson, Jr.; siblings, Alice Veneta Darden Scott (Lawrence), Ethel Darden Starks (Douglas) and Alvin H. Darden, Jr.; grand-daughter-in-law Kira Dixon Johnson; and in-laws Robert Burgette Johnson, (Edith) and Patricia Johnson Clifford (Maurice). She is survived by her children Charles S. Johnson III (Sondra) and Winifred Marie Johnson; grandchildren Charles S. Johnson IV, Christopher Lawrence Johnson, Courtney Nicole Uche (Ugwu) and Colin Taylor Burnett; great-grandchildren Madison Corinne Howard, Ansley Laurel Howard, Charles S. Johnson V and Langston Emile Johnson; in-laws Jeh Vincent Johnson (Norma), Gloria Darden; and by a host of nieces, nephews, extended family and friends.