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C.P. Johnson: Humanitarian namesake
Major League Baseball may never have been the same !
It is appropriate to remember Bothell legend C.P. Johnson during the
week we commemorate the work and life of Martin Luther King. In May of
this year, when the C.P. Johnson Humanitarian Award medals are presented
to students across the Northshore School District, it is equally
appropriate that they and their parents know just what C.P. meant to
this community and to his legion of friends. The late school
superintendent Julian Karp enticed C.P. Johnson to leave the Shoreline
district in 1969 to become Northshore’s first Coordinator of Minority
Affairs, a position he held until his retirement in 1975. This
much-loved educator and his wife Dorothy lived on West Hill in Bothell
for many years. His 78 years spanned much of the civil rights movement
and his life was lived as an active worker for racial equality. These medals go
to students who exemplify C.P.’s humanitarian qualities in their
school and community, with the awards having been first established in
1988. It was easy to
get to know C.P. Johnson. He was a great storyteller, usually employing
dramatic theatrics, sharing personal stories easily and with great
fervor. My favorite C.P.
yarn was his telling of how he rescued baseball legend Jackie Robinson
from the clutches of a southern Alabama sheriff’s office during World
War II when Robinson was serving a hitch in the Army. Robinson was to
become a star football and baseball player at UCLA. He later became the
first Negro baseball player to make the Major Leagues, signed by the
Brooklyn Dodgers. You first need to know that C.P. was born in Baldwin, La., in 1909, where his grandparents owned the local sugar mill. (He liked to joke about his owning a southern plantation, oftentimes using this revelation to break the ice while addressing an all-white, suburban audience). Teaching
in Dallas When he was 7,
the family moved to Fort Worth, Texas to seek a better education for
their children in an era of segregation. Johnson received his
bachelor’s degree in sociology from Morehouse College in Atlanta in
1939. After teaching economics and sociology at several black colleges,
C.P. took a teaching position in the Dallas public school system. It is
there he met and married fellow teacher Dorothy Harris in 1943. From 1943 to
1945 and the end of WW II, C.P. organized and operated United Service
Organization units (USO) in Texas for Catholic charities. It was during
this time that a phone call came from Robinson (probably collect) to
Johnson in the middle of the night while Robinson was on leave. C.P.
learned that Jackie had been jailed in Alabama for refusing to take his
“rightful” seat in the rear of an overland bus taking Robinson back
to his Army station in Texas. C.P. related
how he drove alone night and day through Texas and Louisiana, not
exactly a friendly route for an African-American in a relatively new
automobile during a time when private cars were not easy to come by. To
boot, there was severe gas rationing at the time, so it was up to C.P.
to use all the guile and good will he could muster to complete the trek. Johnson was
able to post bail to the surprise of the sheriff. He quickly tossed
Robinson’s duffel bag in the back seat and the two proceeded to drive
nonstop back to Texas. One doesn’t even want to contemplate what a
different outcome might have meant to Robinson’s career or, for that
matter, just how major league baseball might have otherwise been
integrated. C.P. and Dorothy moved to Seattle in 1959 where he taught social studies and she taught special education classes in the Shoreline district. He obtained his master’s in education at the University of Washington. A
buoying personality Dr. Frank Love,
the late Northshore superintendent of schools, recalled that C.P. “was
one of the most consistently happy men I’ve ever met. He buoyed up
everybody around him.” He
was a gregarious man who knew everybody. I especially looked forward to
a “high five” from C.P. at the annual Kiwanis club spaghetti dinner
held each year in Bothell to warm the crowd heading for the
Bothell-Inglemoor gridiron struggle at nearby Pop Keeney Field. He was active
in politics, attending the National Democratic Convention in 1976. He
gave generously of his time to mentor young people and felt free to
discuss every aspect of life in America – never playing the race card
from a deck stacked with personal experiences growing up in the South. Eulogized at
his death in 1988, a family friend was quoted: “C.P. was a man for all
people and more and better than most, had friends in all walks of life
and among all racial and ethnic groups.” Northshore’s
school leaders have chosen well the hundreds, by now, of C.P. Johnson
medal winners. In reviewing the list of 2004 recipients, I noted the
name of Woodinville High School’s Kia duNann, a senior this year. Kia
has been selected as the state’s only delegate to a Future World
Leaders Summit drawing students from 50 countries to Washington, D.C. in
March. At
last year’s ceremonies, Dorothy Johnson told the 66 recipients from
Northshore’s 33 schools, “C.P. advocated racial and ethnic tolerance
and promoted positive human relations. He based his judgment of people
on the content of their character rather than the color of their
skin.” Believe me, Clifford Paul Johnson was one fine character.
Kia duNann (right), will represent the state of Washington at the Presidential Classroom "Future World Leaders" conference in March in Washington, D.C. She is pictured with Woodinville High School principal Vicki Puckett. Kia is a senior at WHS and was one of 66 recipients of the C.P. Johnson Humanitarian Medal awarded in May of 2004.
A
retirement reception was held December 10 at the Northshore Senior
Center
and here's the LoGerfo story as told in a nice article in the Seattle SomeTimes http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002133711_logerfo29m.html
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The Previous Columns January
5, 2005 December
15, 2004 December
1, 2004 Nov.
17, 2004 November
3, 2004 October
20, 2004 October
6, 2004 Sept
15, 2004 Sept.
1, 2004 August
18, 2004 August
4, 2004 July
21, 2004 July
7, 2004 |
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John
B. Hughes |
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Hughes
serves
as grand marshal |
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Hugo
and (425) 482-4076 |
Return to Page One of your "Greater Grace Daily OnLine Gazette"
