[Peace-discuss] NG: Voice in Champaign-Urbana black community dies

[Ricky Baldwin]

>
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2006/03/24/voice_in_champaign-urbana_
> black_community_dies
> 
> Voice in Champaign-Urbana black community dies
> By Mike Monson
> Friday, March 24, 2006
> 
> 
> CHAMPAIGN ­ Uncompromising civil rights activist
> John Lee Johnson, 64, died
> Thursday from complications of a massive tumor in
> his abdomen.
> 
> Mr. Johnson was involved in virtually every
> controversy in Champaign-Urbana
> since the 1960s, finding housing for poor people,
> making sure black students
> were represented at the University of Illinois and
> forcing the Champaign
> school district to provide more equitable school
> facilities.
> 
> A city council member from 1973 to 1981, Mr. Johnson
> never stopped attending
> council meetings in his trademark T-shirts even as a
> 37-pound tumor began to
> rob him of his strength.
> 
> His longtime girlfriend, Ruby Taylor, said there is
> no one on the local
> scene who shows the determination and aggressiveness
> of the former council
> member.
> 
> "To me, he is a legend," Taylor said today. "I
> believe it would be a good
> thing for someone younger to take over his role, but
> I don't think they'll
> find someone."
> 
> Even those who differed with Mr. Johnson respected
> him.
> 
> Retired UI dean Clarence Shelley had an up-and-down
> relationship with Mr.
> Johnson.
> 
> When Shelley was working in Detroit in 1968, he saw
> a PBS news report on
> Project 500, the UI's first attempt to broadly
> recruit black students. Mr.
> Johnson was the lone black face in a sea of white at
> the meeting shown on
> PBS.
> 
> "A person named Johnson was raising a lot of hell
> about something or other,"
> Shelley said. "When I came here to apply for a job,
> I looked him up as
> someone I respected."
> 
> Mr. Johnson's reaction surprised him.
> 
> "He was ruthless in his assault on my audacity,
> being 'how dare you come in
> from Michigan and try to tell us how to do things,'"
> Shelley recalled,
> chuckling.
> 
> "At first I didn't like him, but I understood this
> is a guy I need to know
> better," Shelley continued. "I was impressed with
> his energy. He challenged
> me and made me challenge him back."
> 
> Shelley came to understand that Mr. Johnson's
> passion was deeply felt and
> rose from idealism.
> 
> "He had an extremely, amazingly high investment in
> this community. This
> place was very important to him," he said.
> 
> Even though Mr. Johnson never went to college, he
> had a strong belief in
> education and wanted to see the UI do its best for
> students, Shelley
> recalled.
> 
> With the late Herb Stevens, Mr. Johnson successfully
> sued Champaign Unit 4
> schools, earning a consent decree that forced more
> schools north of
> University Avenue, among other things.
> 
> Shelley said he has often wondered recently what Mr.
> Johnson was thinking
> about a $66 million school bond measure that was
> defeated by voters, and the
> furor over siting a new school in the predominately
> white Boulder Ridge
> subdivision.
> 
> If Mr. Johnson had not been so debilitated the last
> two months by the tumor,
> which crushed several organs in his abdomen, he
> surely would have been vocal
> on the issue, Shelley said.
> 
> Mr. Johnson died at 7:40 p.m. Thursday (March 23,
> 2006) at Carle Foundation
> Hospital, Urbana. Arrangements are incomplete at
> Melker-Bluitt-Parker
> Mortuary, 704 N. Fourth St., C.
> 
> Longtime friend Lonnie Clark said Mr. Johnson
> struggled to recover,
> undergoing both speech and physical therapy.
> 
> He never regained his ability to speak after the
> operation, Clark said.
> 
> "It's a terrible loss, but in some ways it's a
> blessing because the quality
> of life he had at the end was pretty much
> nonexistent," Clark said.
> 
> Clark said Mr. Johnson fought for social justice his
> entire adult life. He
> was instrumental in the construction of the Martin
> Luther King subdivision
> in Champaign and the Eads Street subdivision in
> Urbana, Clark said, and he
> also was a major part in the still-ongoing
> reconstruction of North First
> Street.
> 
> Clark said Mr. Johnson also served with him on the
> Busey Bank Community
> Reinvestment Act Advisory Board.
> 
> "As Martin Luther King said, he was a drum major in
> many ways to try and
> enrich Champaign-Urbana for everyone," Clark said.
> 
> Champaign County Board member Patricia Avery
> remembered Mr. Johnson as "a
> community leader and activist who cared a lot."
> 
> "He had love for our community," she said.
> 
> Deloris Henry remembered Mr. Johnson as being a
> leader in fair housing,
> affordable housing and on providing health care to
> the poor.
> 
> "John has always been such a strong advocate for
> making sure the community
> did right by the African-American community, whether
> it was city government
> or the schools," she said.
> 
> Claudia Lennhoff, executive director of Champaign
> County Health Care
> Consumers, said Mr. Johnson is slated to receive the
> group's lifetime
> achievement award this year.
> 
> "I can't tell you how common it was for people in
> the community with any
> kind of problem to come in and see John Lee
> Johnson," she said. "He gave
> counsel, he connected people with resources."
> 
> He also ran for City of Champaign Township
> supervisor, for the Champaign
> school board and for the Parkland College board of
> trustees.
> 
> Through the years, Mr. Johnson received many awards
> for civic involvement,
> from groups ranging from Citizens Action to the
> Champaign-Urbana Ministerial
> Alliance. For many years, he was involved in
> Champaign County Health Care
> Consumers.
> 
> In 1999, Mr. Johnson received the Outstanding
> Community Service Award from
> the National Council of African American Men and the
> Champaign County
> Chamber of Commerce.
> 
> And in 2003, the ministerial alliance saluted him
> for 40 years of activism
> against bigotry and prejudice and for removing
> barriers to achieving the
> American dream.
>
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> 


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