MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2007 1st Extraordinary Session
To: Rules
By: Senator(s) Horhn, Butler, Dawkins, Dearing, Frazier, Jackson (11th), Jackson (32nd), Jordan, Posey, Simmons, Thomas, Turner, Walls, Williamson
A RESOLUTION COMMENDING THE LIFE, LEGACY AND CIVIC CONTRIBUTIONS OF CIVIL RIGHTS PIONEER JUNE E. JOHNSON OF GREENWOOD, MISSISSIPPI, AND EXPRESSING THE SYMPATHY OF THE SENATE.
WHEREAS, Mississippi Civil Rights Pioneer and the first African-American woman candidate for the Leflore County Board of Supervisors passed away on April 13, 2007; and
WHEREAS, June E. Johnson was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, to the late Theoda and Lula Bell Johnson, Sr. on December 31, 1947. Her parents hosted visiting SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) workers for many years. June was raised by her maternal grandmother Emily Johnson Holt who also preceded her in death; and
WHEREAS, June began attending SNCC meetings in her early teens after seeing a flyer about a mass meeting at one of the local churches. Robert (Bob) Moses convinced her parents to allow June to attend the meeting and subsequent voter registration workshops; and
WHEREAS, in June 1963, after attending a voter registration workshop, June was arrested and beaten in jail in Winona, Mississippi, along with Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, Euvester Simpson, Annelle Ponder, James West and others; and
WHEREAS, June worked as a paralegal for North Mississippi Rural Legal Services (1972-1973). Throughout the 1970s, she was actively involved in lawsuits aimed at stopping racist practices in the City of Greenwood and Leflore County governments as named plaintiff and as paralegal investigator; and
WHEREAS, with Marion Wright Edelman of the Children's Defense Fund, June drew attention to failures of Mississippi antipoverty agencies and investigated Mississippi prison conditions; and
WHEREAS, June moved to Washington, D.C., in 1982, worked in city government for the Office of Paternity and Child Support Enforcement (1983-1986), and as a home hospital teacher. From 1995 until September 2006, (after health began to fail her) June was the program monitor in the Office of Early Childhood Development and served as first Vice President of the Washington, D.C., Ward 6 Democrats; and
WHEREAS, she was a research consultant for the film Freedom Song (2000)about Mississippi SNCC workers and lead consultant for the documentary Standing on My Sisters Shoulders, a film documenting her civil rights activism, along with fellow activists Dorie Ladner, Fannie Lou Hamer, Victoria Gray Adams, Annie Devine, Lawrence Guyot and others. Additionally, she is featured in a documentary produced by American Public Radio entitled Mississippi Becomes A Democracy; and
WHEREAS, she continued her work with various organizations and institutions right up to the time of her death. June provided information that few spoke of or cared to share. She never stopped planning how to get accurate information out about the Civil Rights Movement. She often recalled "Mrs. Hamer called me to her bedside when she was dying and told me all about her unfinished business"; and
WHEREAS, it is with sadness that we note the passing of this citizen who was a respected leader of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi and the United States:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, That we do hereby commend the life, legacy and civic contributions of Civil Rights Pioneer June E. Johnson of Greenwood, Mississippi, and express to her surviving family the sympathy of the Mississippi Senate on her passing.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this resolution be presented to the surviving family of June E. Johnson and be made available to members of the Capitol Press Corps.