Ella Mae Johnson: Her story was history, too

Ella Mae Johnson was a witness to more than a century of African-American history, and last year, on Inauguration Day, she was determined to be in Washington to see Barack Obama sworn in as president...

From NPR:

Ella Mae Johnson was a witness to more than a century of African-American history, and last year, on Inauguration Day, she was determined to be in Washington to see Barack Obama sworn in as president. When she died at home in Cleveland this week, at the age of 106, she felt that trip to the nation’s capital was a highlight of her life. It also changed her life.

Johnson was a pioneering professional woman. In 1926, when she’d gone to graduate school to become a social worker, she was the first black student. But she wasn’t allowed to live on campus.

She dealt with such slights throughout her life with an air of formality and dignity.

But on Inauguration Day, she was willing to look a little silly in order to sit outside in the bitter cold for seven hours. She put on an elegant jacket and put on her pearl necklace. But in her wheelchair, she let her nurse cover her from head to toe in a bright blue sleeping bag, with just her round glasses and her nose peeking through the puffy fabric.

Click here to read the rest of this story.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE