Kathryn Johnson

Kathryn Johnson (1926 – October 23, 2019) was an American journalist who covered the civil rights movement for the Associated Press.

Born in Columbus, Georgia, Johnson studied English at Agnes Scott College and took classes in journalism from Georgia State University. She applied to be a reporter at the Associated Press in the late 1940s, but was instead hired as a secretary. The organization eventually promoted her to reporter, in 1959, and Johnson found herself as the only woman reporter in their Atlanta bureau. Johnson was tasked with covering the American Civil Rights movement, including the desegregations of the University of Georgia and the University of Alabama. She also reported on the activities of Martin Luther King Jr., forming a close relationship with him and his wife. She later wrote about this time, including the aftermath of his assassination, in the book My Time with the Kings.

Johnson also reported on the Vietnam War, interviewing Jeremiah Denton and William Calley. She was presented with a Nieman Fellowship in 1976 and left the Associated Press in 1979, finding work as an associate editor for the U.S. News & World Report. She left there in 1988 and moved to Atlanta to care for her mother, then worked at CNN until her retirement in 1999.

Early life and education Kathryn Johnson, formerly known as Giannakopoulos, was born on May 18, 1926, in Columbus, Georgia, to a Greek immigrant father. Johnson was engaged to be married, but her fiancé died during World War II. who "did not want to cover a black movement". The following year, Johnson reported on the trial which acquitted the Klansmen responsible for the Murder of Lemuel Penn; she described being told to sit on the second story with the Black spectators and watch the proceedings from the balcony, while the white men were allowed downstairs.

Four years later, in 1968, Johnson heard of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on the radio; she drove to the King's home where she was met by police. Johnson stated that she was initially prevented from going to the house by police, who said that reporters were not allowed inside; they were overruled by Coretta. she later became the chief of their Southeastern bureau. Johnson left in 1988, when she moved to Atlanta to take care of her mother, successfully seeking employment at the CNN offices there. She retired in 1999.

During her career, Johnson became known for building trust with her interview subjects, keeping in touch with them even after publishing her stories.

My Time with the Kings

In 2016, the Associated Press and Rosetta Books published My Time with the Kings: A Reporter's Recollections of Martin, Coretta and the Civil Rights Movement, a book by Johnson, comprised in part from her original wire reports and chapters she had intended for a memoir: A review in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, described the book as both an autobiography and a description of the King family in the immediate aftermath of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. The review described her writing in a "vibrant", and in "spare reportorial AP style", which was engaging and gave the impression that Johnson was proud of the connections she had with the family, connections other reporters lacked. The reviewer noted Johnson's claims that she was the only white woman in the crowd at some marches, describing that as "a stretch of the truth" and disputing her description of King as mostly unknown when she was first assigned to report on him.

Later years and death In her later life, Johnson attended the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in Atlanta. After her retirement, her work at the Associated Press was publicly acknowledged by the agency. "They’re treating me like a celebrity. They sure didn’t treat me like that when I worked for them."

Johnson died on October 23, 2019, at the age of 93, in Atlanta, Georgia.