Greater New York Areas
Honorable Regent Dr. Judith Ann Johnson
Bio
Honorable Regent Judith Johnson was born Judith Ann Lockley on July 17, 1939 in Brooklyn, New York. Regent Johnson grew up in the middle of the low income Walt Whitman Projects. Her interests growing up were dance, music, and arts. Most importantly, she eagerly attended protests for social and racial equality during her formative years.
Her inspirations by motivational speakers like Martin Luther King, poet Maya Angelou, musicians Marvin Gaye and filmmakers Spike Lee all built the foundation for her goal to leave behind an equitable scholarship. During Honorable Regent Johnson’s teaching career, she taught poetry to high school students imprisoned on Rikers Island. Honorable Regent Johnson found a common denominator in children in the prisons. They lacked opportunity. She studied “No Child Left Behind” reports thoroughly.
In 1999, Honorable Johnson took her first stand and testified in front of Congress, demanding for more funding for afterschool programs. But the problem hit home when Honorable Johnson’s second child, Paul Johnson, band program was removed. The fight had begun. She provided local and federal government policy makers the flaws of their decision making.
Honorable Regent Johnson provided cities, such as, Mt. Vernon, Peekskill, & more; of equal opportunity and inclusive democracy among segregated schools. In her final remarks, what Honorable Regent Judith Johnson will continue to provide in her way too soon passing, is a better alternative for state and local leaders that all play a workable part in the needed opportunities for their communities' children.
Education
Honorable Regent Dr. Judith Ann Johnson won admission to Vassar College, but gripped by crippling insecurity fed by her mother who said my mother would never fit in with those rich white girls, she turned down the admission offer and instead enrolled in at the time one of the best public schools in the world, Brooklyn College, where she is enshrined in the Alumni Hall of Fame.
Employment
Dr. Johnson taught at Boys and Girls High School and at Riker’s Island where teenagers as young as 15 could be imprisoned while awaiting trial which is why it is necessary to have a high school there. She spent decades working in the Westchester Public schools, including, as Superintendent of the Mt. Vernon and Peekskill public schools. In Peekskill, she was the first African American named Superintendent of the Year in New York.
She won a bond initiative to build a new middle school and, they named the auditorium after her. Dr. Johnson was the Deputy Assistant and Acting Assistant Secretary of Education under President Bill Clinton, whom she described as a moderate Republican.
In 1999, she testified in front of Congress advocating for increased funding for after school programs, during the push for the passage she was tried like an A/V staffer by the then First Lady of the United States and future senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. In 2006, Dr. Johnson had the honor of saying “thank you but no thank you” to the US Senator who wanted to speak at one of the Peekskill public schools.