Josie R. Johnson

Josie Robinson Johnson (born October 7, 1930) is an American community organizer and activist for African American rights. Described by the Minneapolis Star Tribune as the "First Lady of Minnesota Civil Rights," she was instrumental in the success of a fair housing bill in Minnesota in 1962. The first Black person appointed to the University of Minnesota Board of Regents, Johnson has been a lifelong advocate for equity in housing, education, and voting rights.

Early life and education

Josie Robinson was born in San Antonio, Texas, on October 7, 1930. She grew up in Houston, Texas and worked for her grandmother at a pharmacy in West Houston. Johnson credited her family with her strong sense of justice, describing her heritage as "wonderfully strong, hard-working, independent women." Johnson would accompany her mother in visits to tutor illiterate white women in their kitchens.

Activism

After moving to Minnesota, she became a community organizer for the local affiliate office of the Urban League, holding the acting director position from 1967 to 1968, and became active in the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party. She was an officer in the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP and held a position in the Minneapolis chapter of Jack and Jill of America, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for children. When the bill she was promoting was stagnating in a state Senate committee, she visited Governor Elmer Andersen. She also traveled to Mississippi in 1964 with an interfaith, interracial delegation of women called Wednesdays in Mississippi, taking part in the Freedom Summer campaign to provide support and supplies to civil rights workers and black families. When the Minnesota Student Mobilization Committee organized a rally protesting the Vietnam War in 1973, Johnson addressed the crowd, urging students to commit to long-term activism to make substantive changes to society.

Later activism

Johnson was a superdelegate for Minnesota at the 2008 Democratic National Convention where she cast her vote for Barack Obama. Interviewed about the 2020 murder of George Floyd, she discussed the historical context around the protests in the continued fight for equal opportunities for African Americans.

In 2018, the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs established the Josie Robinson Johnson Fellowship for students focusing on racial inequities and injustice. The same year, civil rights leader Vernon Jordan lauded Johnson at an event in her honor:

Her 2019 memoir, Hope in the Struggle, provides insights into her life's work as well as the racial history of the Twin Cities.