[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Page Header” _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Exhibit Title” _builder_version=”4.17.6″ _dynamic_attributes=”content” _module_preset=”default” border_width_bottom=”1px” border_color_bottom=”#E09900″ global_module=”6078″ global_colors_info=”{}”]@ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50Ijoic2l0ZV90aXRsZSIsInNldHRpbmdzIjp7ImJlZm9yZSI6IjxoMj4iLCJhZnRlciI6IjwvaDI+In19@[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Section Title” module_id=”section-title” module_class=”page-header” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_margin=”||5px” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Page Title” module_id=”page-title” module_class=”page-header” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_margin=”0px||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/oldsite.coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2021\/10\/CCP_006_JohnsonFamilyFarm-1956.png” title_text=”CCP_006_JohnsonFamilyFarm-1956″ show_in_lightbox=”on” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”13px” text_line_height=”1.3em” header_font_size=”13px” min_height=”51.7px” custom_margin=”-8px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Johnson Family Farm, 1956 [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n James Henry Johnson was a prominent minister, organizer, and farmer in the Alton area. He helped establish numerous independent Black Baptist churches and participated in the movement to repeal the Illinois black laws. <\/span><\/p>\n Johnson was born in Albemarle County, Virginia. His mother was an enslaved woman named Celia. It\u2019s not certain who his father was, but early in life James and Celia were enslaved by the Coles family, white Virginians who migrated to Illinois. Edward Coles, a member of that family, became Governor of Illinois and was well known for freeing the enslaved people he owned when he arrived in the state.[1]<\/span><\/p>\n James and his mother, Celia, lived and worked in Missouri for a while. In 1834, their enslaver at the time, a man named John Johnson, wrote a will in which he declared that he wanted James and Celia to become free. Two years later, the mother and son purchased their freedom from John Johnson\u2019s sons for $500.[2<\/span>]<\/span><\/p>\n While in Missouri, James met Eleanor Madden,<\/a><\/span> an enslaved woman who, like him, became free in 1836. The pair married and, before long, purchased land in Illinois. While in Missouri, the Johnsons were associated with a white-led Baptist church, Mt. Zion. White Baptist missionaries visited the congregation and urged the Johnsons to move to Illinois and help spread the Baptist faith among African Americans.[3]<\/span><\/p>\n The Johnsons moved to Illinois around 1840, and in 1850, James purchased eighty acres of land and started Oak Leaf Farm, northeast of Alton, Illinois. On their farm, the Johnson family grew corn, raised livestock, and cultivated food crops for themselves.[4]<\/span><\/p>\n The Johnson family became deeply embedded in the African American community around Alton. James helped found several Baptist churches and served as pastor for Salem and Union Baptist churches. By the late 1840s, he was active in the Wood River Colored Baptist Association, the regional organization of Black Baptist Churches that became an incubator for activism against Illinois’s black laws.[5<\/span>]<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/oldsite.coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/02\/CCP_005_JohnFamilyReunion-1904-2.png” title_text=”CCP_005_JohnFamilyReunion-1904 (2)” show_in_lightbox=”on” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”13px” text_line_height=”1.3em” header_font_size=”13px” custom_margin=”-11px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Johnson Family Reunion, 1904 [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Perhaps inspired by the growing movement against the Illinois black laws, in August of 1853, Johnson convened with dozens of others on the farm of F. Darach to discuss \u201cthe improvement of the condition of our people, by securing to our children the means of becoming educated\u201d and \u201cto promote a taste for farming, the most noble and honorable of employments.\u201d Johnson initially chaired the meeting and was then elected president.[6]<\/span><\/p>\n James Henry Johnson helped fuel the movement against the Illinois black laws. Though he did not attend the 1853 convention in Chicago, three years later he represented Madison County at the second statewide convention, which was held in Alton. There, he was appointed a secretary and a member of the Agriculture Committee, and he was nominated by John Jones<\/a> to serve in the newly formed State Repeal Association as commissioner for the southern portion of the state. The Repeal Association\u2019s aim was to persuade the state legislature to eliminate the state\u2019s racist laws and to \u201cobtain for the colored people of Illinois all the rights and immunities of citizenship\u201d by \u201cholding public meetings, delivering lectures and circulating petitions.\u201d[7]<\/span><\/p>\n By 1863, the year that James Henry Johnson passed away at his home, the farm had expanded to 200 acres valued at $2,500. His family continued farming. Four generations of Johnsons lived on the farm after James\u2019 death. In the early 21st century, it was one of the oldest farms in the country continuously owned and operated by an African American family.[8]<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″ admin_label=”Sources”]<\/p>\n 1. \u201cA Sesquicentennial Farm,\u201d Madison County Historical Society, accessed Sept. 8, 2021, https:\/\/madcohistory.org\/online-exhibits\/farming-in-madison-county-before-1900-introduction\/a-sesquicentennial-farm\/<\/a>; Norm Parish, \u201cA Legacy on the Land,\u201d St. Louis Post-Dispatch,<\/i> June 29, 2003.<\/p>\n 2. \u201cAfrican-American History of Washington County [Mo.] and Surrounding Area,\u201d Emancipation Records, https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20161111033820\/http:\/\/www.freewebs.com\/aawashco\/emancipationrecords.htm<\/a>, accessed Nov. 1, 2021; Charlotte Johnson to Kate Masur, emails, Oct.-Nov., 2021.<\/p>\n 3. Charlotte E. Johnson, \u201cEarly African Americans of Madison County,\u201d Madison County Historical Society News, <\/i>vol. 9, no. 3 (May 2021), 8-9.<\/p>\n 4. \u201cA Sesquicentennial Farm\u201d; Johnson, \u201cEarly African Americans,\u201d 8; Johnson to Masur correspondence.<\/p>\n 5. \u201cA Sesquicentennial Farm\u201d; Johnson, \u201cEarly African Americans,\u201d 9; Eddy Mabry, The History of Wood River Baptist District Association <\/i>(St. Louis: Wood River Baptist District Association, 1996), 28; Charlotte E. Johnson, \u201cFamily Ties in Pike County,\u201d Likes Lecture Recording, June 9, 2020 at the New Philadelphia Association, accessed Sept. 8, 2021,\u00a0 \u00a0http:\/\/newphiladelphiail.org\/2020\/06\/11\/charlotte-e-johnson-spoke-on-june-9-2020-recording-here\/<\/a><\/p>\n 6. \u201cEducational Convention,\u201d Alton Evening Telegraph<\/i>, Aug. 10, 1853.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Descendent of James Henry Johnson, Cyrus L. Johnson, and his sons Alvin, Lloyd, and William, working the family farm in 1956. <\/span>(Source: Courtesy of Madison County Historical Society, IL, and<\/span><\/span><\/a> Charlotte Johnson<\/a>.<\/span>)<\/p>\n
<\/strong>(Source: Johnson family reunion at Oak Leaf Farm in 1904,<\/a> Courtesy of Madison County Historical Society, IL<\/span>)<\/p>\nSources<\/h4>\n