As the selected accompanying photographs attest, Johnson’s photographs document African American culture of the last six decades, including the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s and the poignancy of daily life.  His work also celebrates individuals in politics and culture.  When employed by a local newspaper, he photographed many celebrities, including Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, Paul Robeson, Jackie Robinson, and the poet Langston Hughes. He also captured entertainment idols, such as Nat “King” Cole, Eartha Kitt, blues singer Ruth Brown, and jazz guitarist “T. Bone” Walker.

Equally compelling are Johnson’s images of ordinary African Americans.  These speak today—a young boy sitting pensively on a fence; weary civil rights marchers in Washington, DC; a father watching his daughter on a carousel.  As forceful are images of a man lounging in a shop doorway, proud deacons at a storefront Baptist church, and children of two races delighted to pose together, oblivious of their different skin colors.
 

When young Johnson arrived in San Francisco after World War II and a stint in the U. S. Navy’s segregated Stewards Department (for “colored” people only), he moved to the Fillmore District.  In this area, an African American population had relocated from the Southern states to seek work in war-related industries, and the Fillmore became their accepted neighborhood.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the Fillmore District became a mecca of African American jazz, attracting such stars as Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday. Johnson has always loved jazz, and he started visiting them and photographing what he saw.  In clubs that were long famous but have sadly vanished (such as the Blue Mirror, Jack’s Tavern, and Primalon Ballroom), his photographs document the vibrancy and joy of the music and nightlife.  We see Camille Howard singing the Blues (lead photo above) and a couple dancing on Saturday night.

The Fillmore District, currently undergoing massive urban redevelopment, is regaining its reputation as the historical jazz center of African American culture.  It is now officially the Fillmore Jazz Preservation District, and Johnson’s role in preserving the District’s history is acknowledged in a PBS documentary about San Francisco.  And at the Gene Suttle Plaza, an inscription with Johnson’s name is engraved into the sidewalk alongside other important African American figures.

Johnson is the only living photographer represented in the book Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era (Elizabeth Pepin and Lewis Watts, Chronicle Books, 2005).  His images are featured in several other books, including San Francisco’s Lost Landmarks (James R. Smith, Word Dancer Press, 2004) and The Moment of Seeing: Minor White [Johnson’s acclaimed mentor] at the California School of Fine Arts (Stephanie Comer, Deborah Klochko, and Jeff Gunderson, Chronicle Books, 2006).
 

Johnson is clear about his mission.  “I always felt the drive to record my people’s hopes, dreams, and struggles.  As an African American experiencing racism and discrimination, I felt that I empowered the people I photographed to see themselves more positively--like the man on the skateboard.  He could have never afforded a prosthetic, and he’d hit on a perfect way to get around.  He must have sensed my admiration and allowed me to take his photograph.”

Johnson’s images capture this admiration, a deep empathy for his subjects, and a subtle symbolism.  On Lincoln’s stone lap, a boy looks sidelong, as if his physical presence on the icon can help fulfill the promise of equality.  Another boy pulls a wagon with a smaller boy in it under a waving American flag, and one can sense the struggle up a perpetual uphill street.    
 

Johnson’s photographic career spans over 60 years, and he has broken through many racial and age barriers in other areas as well.  He was the first African American to run for San Francisco County Sheriff, and he was a university personnel administrator and a civil rights activist.  At age 71, he received his master’s degree in social work from an Eastern university and practiced for several years with underserved populations.  In his 70s also, Johnson realized another long- held ambition.  He took acting classes and appeared in 35 television commercials and several first-run films.  And on his recent 83rd birthday, he got married.