By Jordan Meadows
Staff Writer
Edward Austin Johnson, born enslaved in Raleigh on November 23, 1860, became a leading educator, attorney, author, and political figure whose work shaped public life in Wake County.
Johnson was educated first by Nancy Walton, a free African American woman who also instructed white children from prominent families, and later at a school run by two white New Englanders. After graduating from Washington School for Negroes, he chose to attend Atlanta University in 1878. While studying there beginning in 1879, Johnson taught in rural Houston County, Georgia, and operated a barbershop. By the time he completed his studies in 1883, he was already teaching in the Atlanta public school system and eventually became principal of the Mitchell Street School.
Johnson returned to Raleigh in 1885 to serve as principal of Washington High School, a position he held until 1891. During this period, he helped lead the North Carolina Negro Teachers Association, which advocated for equal schooling for African American students.
Observing the lack of suitable instructional materials on Black history, he wrote A School History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1890. Urged by the Raleigh school superintendent, the book was adopted in Black schools in North Carolina and Virginia and went through multiple editions. He later wrote History of the Negro Soldiers in the Spanish American War in 1899 and the novel Light Ahead for the Negro in 1904.
While working as an educator, Johnson pursued legal studies at Shaw University. He earned his LL.B. in 1891 as the law school’s first graduate and joined the faculty in 1893. By 1907 he had become dean of the law department. Alongside his academic work, Johnson practiced law, built a notable real estate portfolio, and served from 1899 to 1906 as assistant to the United States District Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
In Raleigh, he also served as an alderman from 1897 to 1899 and remained active in Republican politics, attending national conventions in 1892, 1896, and 1900. President Theodore Roosevelt included him as an honorary brigadier general in his inaugural parade. And in 1900 Johnson helped found the National Negro Business League with Booker T. Washington.
In 1907, Johnson moved to Harlem, where he established a successful law practice and continued his political involvement. He was then elected to the New York State Legislature from the 19th Assembly District, becoming the first African American to hold that seat. Even after being declared legally blind around 1920, Johnson continued writing, publishing Adam vs. Ape-Man and Ethiopia.
Edward Johnson died on July 25, 1944, after complications from surgery. In his will, he directed that most of his estate—valued at $75,000—support the Raleigh School for the Negro Blind, the Congregational Church, Shaw University scholarships, a trust for blind African American youth in Raleigh, and the NAACP.
