Faces of Newton County 2015
The Covington News
Richard
JOHNSON
A Civil Rights trailblazer
W
hen Richard Johnson says he has seen Newton County change, don’t just believe him.
Thank him.
When our country and our county was struggling with segregation, Johnson
was not struggling in his beliefs or actions.
He says it started in 1955 when black Newton County residents had their
own restaurant, grocery store, taxi stand and pool hall. Right across the street
was another pool hall, this one for whites only. White residents would come
into the black residents’ pool hall but no one went the other direction. Until
Johnson one day decided to cross the street, and shot pool in the whites only
pool hall, with what he says was “very minimum resistance.”
About that time Johnson enlisted in the U.S. Army and served three years
before going to work in a construction company. He started his own company
briefly before working for Bibb Manufacturing for three years.
At that time, around 1965, the Civil Rights Act had already passed and Johnson decided to go work for Georgia Highway Express, located on Jonesboro
Road. However, Georgia Highway Express took a while to catch on to the Civil
Rights Act and it was 1968 when Johnson decided to explain the law to the company.
Georgia Highway Express in the mid-to-late 60s hired black workers, but only
for jobs such as dock worker or truck loader; nothing in a supervisory or office
role. There were still signs on the bathrooms stating blacks only or whites only.
Johnson decided to go to a company meeting, where the owner was giving
a speech, and stood up in front of all the white supervisors and asked if applications were going to come available for black persons to apply for supervisory
jobs.
“This was not supposed to be said at that time,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t right
for blacks to speak up."
“His remark back to me at that time was ‘we were working on it.’”
About two weeks later, Johnson was going to report for his midnight shift
at Georgia Highway Express when his sister had a flat tire, he had given her his
spare , so when he got a flat tire he couldn’t immediately fix it. He called in to
Georgia Highway Express to tell them why he wasn’t there, and no one answered.
Then the next day when he got to work there wasn’t a time card for him.
“I asked my immediate supervisors where my card was and he said ‘You don’t
have one. They fired you.’” Johnson said. “I knew what was happening. Because I
spoke out at the meeting, I was dismissed.”
That didn’t deter Johnson. He went to the Georgia Council on Human Relations in downtown Atlanta, and began filing a civil rights lawsuit.
What would come was Johnson vs. Georgia Highway Express, the first lawsuit
challenging black workers rights after the Civil Rights Act had passed.
Johnson won the case, Georgia Highway Express was put on probation for
two years, the black only and white only signs came down, and every time the
company needed to fill a position, it had to interview black candidates, as
well as white.
Continued on PAGE 18
Congratulations
Richard Johnson
Good Hope Baptist Church
Rev. Eddie J. Tomlinson, Sr., Pastor
1142 Hwy 162 • Covington, GA 30016
770-787-4928
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