Colonel Stone Johnson

Colonel Stone Johnson (born September 9, 1918 in Hayesville, Lowndes County) is a former union representative and Civil Rights activist.

Johnson is the son of Colonel and Fannie Johnson. The family moved to Birmingham in 1922 and he attended Slater Elementary School and graduated from Lincoln High School in 1939. During high school he worked for the Bowden Trucking Company and after graduation became an employee of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, where he worked for 39 years.

At the railroad, Johnson became active in labor issues as a union representative. He became acquainted with Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights founder Fred Shuttlesworth in 1956 and joined the emerging Civil Rights Movement.

After the bombing of Shuttlesworth's home that Christmas, Johnson helped put together a volunteer security detail, later called the Civil Rights Guards, which kept watch over churches, businesses and homes connected to the movement. He helped remove dynamite from near Bethel Church when another attempt was made to destroy it. When keeping watch, he carried what he refers to now as a "nonviolent .38 police special."

In 1977 Johnson testified against National States Rights Party official J. B. Stoner, who was convicted of conspiring to plant a bomb at Bethel in 1955.

Johnson retired from L&N in 1979. He has volunteered at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute since its opening in 1993, leading tours around Kelly Ingram Park and sharing his personal recollections of the movement in Birmingham with visitors from across the country. In 2006 he accepted the Robert P. Bynum Award from the UAB Center for Aging, a recognition for seniors who are "actively engaged in activities that enhance the health or well-being of other older adults."

Johnson is married to the former Beatrice Yancey.

References

• "An original foot soldier." (August 26, 2003) BBC News
• Colonel Stone Johnson interview and biography. Teachers' Domain.