Judge John Johnson

Judge John D. Johnson

Judge John D. Johnson, one of seven Children born to Bahamian immigrants Samuel D. and Ida Ellen Johnson, has a Bachelor of Arts degree from West Virginia and a Juris Doctorate from Howard University, Washington D.C. While at West Virginia, Johnson was president of the Historical Society, staff member of the school newspaper, and member of the varsity debate team, where he debated against Cambridge University, Cambridge, England. While at Howard, he was a member of the American Law Student Association and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

When he returned to Miami in 1946, Johnson and G.E. Graves opened a law practice. During the years of segregation, he worked on many civil rights cases that helped to break the barriers of segregation in education, recreation, and transportation. Some of these cases were argued before the State Supreme Court. During his long practice, he was threatened with death, jail, and contempt of court. Johnson participated in the planning and construction of the original Miami Northwestern Senior High School; the setting up of Dade County’s Food Stamp Program; the development of the Miami Plan; the establishment of the Family Health Clinic; the golf court case of Rice vs.

Arnold which resulted in Blacks being admitted to The Miami Springs Golf Club, and was involved in the case which allowed Blacks to sit in 2nd Black Judge the Orange Bowl, Janin Florida uary 1, 1949. Judge BTW Class of 1931 Johnson also participated in the planning and establishment of the Model Cities Legal Services Program; won cases that prohibited liquor stores in Alphonso Brown sville; helped defeat the County’s Housing Authority from putting projects next to single family homes in Black areas; joined G.E. Graves and Frank Reeves, a Washington D.C. lawyer (and first cousin to Garth Reeves) in defeating the Johns Committee which tried to outlaw the NAACP in Florida and tried unsuccessfully to jail Father Theodore Gibson and Reverend Edward T. Graham. His family symbolizes the American dream. His brothers are the late Dr. S. H. Johnson, radiologist; the late Fred Johnson, teacher and accountant; Dr. James Kenneth Johnson, internist; and sisters Roberta Thompson, retired teacher, the late Elaine Adderly and Dorothy McKeller, teachers. He is the uncle of Judge A. Leo Adderly, a County Judge, and Dr. Dorothy Jenkins Fields, Founder and Chief Archivist of the Black Archives Foundation, Inc. His wife is the late Johnalie Johnson, a teacher. Judge Johnson is a charter member of the Church of the Open Door, where he served as a member of the Board of Trustees. The Black community of Miami-Dade County owes much to Judge John D. Johnson for his benevolence and service.

Judge Johnson (behind desk); left to right; Garth Reeves, Miami Times editor, Thurgood Marshall (1st black judge on the U.S. Supreme & than chief counsel for the NAACP & Atty. G. E. Graves

By Dorothy Jenkins Fields