Lenwood Johnson

Lenwood E. Johnson (died May 2018 ) was an activist who fought for public housing and African-American rights in Houston, Texas. He campaigned to prevent the demolition of Allen Parkway Village (APV), a public housing complex in the Fourth Ward, managed by the Housing Authority of the City of Houston (HACH), now known as Houston Housing Authority (HHA). By the 2010s he became an activist seeking to preserve the history of the Fourth Ward itself.

In 1995 Brian Wallstin of the Houston Press wrote that "For better or worse, whether heroic or just stubbornly obstructionist, the 15-year standoff between a single black man and powerful real-estate developers -- and the government bureaucrats who, as well, long for the coveted land on which APV sits -- will likely be remembered as legendary."

Early life Johnson originated from a rural area near Brenham, where his father worked as a sharecropper, He intended to go to St. Mary's College in San Antonio but instead majored in physics at Prairie View A&M University when his family lost their land value because of flooding and drought. Johnson attended for three years but dropped out because he was fired from a work-study program for protesting its conditions and therefore could no longer afford to attend. In 1983, and he stated his opposition to political and business leaders seeking to raze APV. A former spokesperson for the HACH, Esther De Ipolyi, stated that the agency was surprised about the resistance it was facing against the demolition, and that "Lenwood's very effective. He's one lone ranger who essentially stopped the process." Johnson went into conflict with two HACH heads, Earl Phillips, He later moved into a rental unit operated by a private party.

After the end of the APV conflict, Johnson sought to preserve the bricks used on the roads of the Fourth Ward, which had been made by newly-freed slaves, as well as the Fourth Ward in general. In November 2010 members of the Gregory Library Watch, a group started in January 2010, accused the Gregory African-American Library in the Fourth Ward of deliberately not archiving certain historical documents. Lenwood Johnson, now a member of the organization, stated that the library refused to archive documents about an effort to prevent the closing of the Allen Parkway Village. Johnson worked with activist Timothy O'Brien in his efforts to preserve the Fourth Ward. Johnson also criticized Mayor of Houston Annise Parker for seeking to preserve the original Rufus Cage Elementary School in the Eastwood while not doing enough to preserve the Fourth Ward.

Death From September 2017 to the end of his life, Johnson lived with a friend. Johnson developed respiratory problems and, when experiencing breathing issues, was taken to St. Joseph Medical Center in Downtown Houston on the evening of May 10, 2018. He died that month, at age 75. His funeral was to be held in Brenham.