Public Access America

Colonel Stone Johnson was born on September 9, 1918, in Hayesville, Alabama, to Fannie and Colonel Johnson. Johnson’s family moved to Birmingham, Alabama, when he was a small child; there he attended Slater Elementary School, and graduated from Lincoln High School in 1939. While in high school, Johnson began working on the weekends for the Bowdon Trucking Company; after graduation, he continued there full-time. Johnson was then hired to work at the L & M Rail Road Company, where he became the first African American union representative; in this role he worked to equalize working conditions for African American employees, who were often discriminated against. Johnson remained employed by the L & M Rail Road Company for thirty-nine years. In 1956, Johnson met Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and became active in the Civil Rights Movement after civil rights leaders formed the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) in response to Alabama state officials outlawing the NAACP for its supportive r