“I’m still very much a radical. I’ve always defined a radical as someone not satisfied with the status quo. And I’m definitely not satisfied with the status quo."
From interview by James Lileks, “They still see red – Nellie Stone Johnson” St. Paul Pioneer Press, 1 May 1988.
A life-long commitment to working for civil, human, and labor rights
As a leader of organized labor in the 1930s and 1940s, Nellie Stone Johnson was the first woman vice-president of the Minnesota Culinary Council and the first woman vice-president of Local 665 Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union. She was also the first black person elected to citywide office in Minneapolis when she won a seat on the Library Board in 1945.
Nellie Stone Johnson grew up with a strong tradition of support for education. Her mother and grandmother were teachers. Her father was a school board member in Dakota County. She left home at 17 to finish high school through the GED program at the University of Minnesota. After a number of years in the work force, Nellie continued her studies at the University of Wisconsin using the money she earned from trapping to finance her education there. Nellie's commitment to education continued through her work on the Minnesota Education Board. She also served on the Minnesota State University Board for eight years, and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees.
Nellie Stone Johnson was a life member of the NAACP and the National Coalition of Negro Women, a member of the National Coalition of Labor Women, the National League of Women Voters, the DFL Affirmative Action Committee and the DFL Feminist Caucus, the Democratic National Committee and a former board member of the Minnesota Urban League. She has received numerous awards, including the Urban League's Cecil E. Newman Humanitarian Award, Honorary Doctor of Letters - St. Cloud State University, Distinguished Minnesotan Award – Bemidji State University, and WCCO Good Neighbor Award.
If you’d like to learn more, contact us to purchase Nellie Stone Johnson: The Life of an Activist, as told to David Brauer. St. Paul: Ruminator Books, 2000.