Her childhood memories are priceless nuggets for historians researching Washington's lineage. One of the great black statesmen of the early 1900s, Washington's success at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama is legendary.
Yet to her, Tuskegee Institute, which Washington founded in 1881, was home. She grew up in a house across from the college's main gates. Founders Day at the college was a family reunion.
"I'm really not a history book about my family," said Johnson of Wilberforce. "I just lived it."
Her family roots are closely entwined with other cornerstones of black history. Johnson's godfather was George Washington Carver, the agricultural scientist who revolutionized use of the peanut.
"Aunt Sadie" on her mother's side was Sarah Meriwether Nutter, one of the founders of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the nation's oldest black sorority. Her late husband was Robert B. Johnson, son of Charles Johnson, the first black president of Fisk University.
On Tuesday, Johnson will speak about her heritage as part of Wittenberg University's Black History Month activities. The talk will begin at 7 p.m. in Shouvlin Hall.
Johnson, 66, is the third of four daughters born to Ernest Davidson Washington and Edith Meriwether Washington. Ernest Washington is Booker T. Washington's youngest son. He and Booker Taliaferro Jr. were offspring of Washington's second marriage to Olivia Davidson. Booker T. Washington's first marriage produced a daughter, Portia M. Washington.
Johnson was born in a hospital on Tuskegee's campus, nine years after Booker T. Washington's death in 1915. She lived in a house that was a wedding present to her parents from Washington.
Her father died when she was 13 years old. However, Johnson said she remembers her father saying how Booker T. Washington would come riding on a horse early each morning yelling, "Davidson. Davidson. Wake up, Davidson, it's time to get up." Her father, who people called "Dave," worked at Tuskegee's office of campaigns and publicity.
As a little girl, Johnson said she would often go to the office and help her father mail fund-raising letters. In a sense, the running of Tuskegee was a family affair - Booker T. Washington's brother, John; his foster brother, James; his nephew, Albert; and his sister, Portia all worked at the institute, Johnson said.
She literally grew up on the grounds of Tuskegee. All of her schooling, from kindergarten through the 12th grade, occurred at campus schools where university students trained to become teachers.
Because Tuskegee was known for its agricultural and vocational training, dignitaries came to campus on a regular basis.
"We were always dragged out when people came to visit Tuskegee," she said, "like when Franklin Roosevelt came to Tuskegee. He had a specially made car to sit in. ... We were introduced."
It was through Tuskegee that her family became close to George Washington Carver. Booker T. Washington asked Carver to be Tuskegee's director of agricultural research in 1896.
"He was a scientist and he was very close to nature," she said. "Every morning you could find him walking, smelling the roses."
Johnson said Carver admired her grandfather so much, he became close to her family. Each Christmas, Carver would remember her by sending a package of toasted peanuts.
"He was a very, very sweet man. He was very profound in a basic way."
Carver died in 1943. He is buried beside Booker T. Washington.
Today, Johnson lives in Wilberforce, a retired administrator from Central State University. When she left Central State in 1988, she was coordinator of counseling for university college. Johnson has been a local resident since 1953.
Her family photo albums are filled with old photos of growing up in Tuskegee. She, her three sisters and Booker T. Washington III are the oldest living descendants of Washington.
Looking back on her 33 years at Central State, she said it's easy today to see what Booker T. Washington gave her.
"I really feel that it was my following in the field of education - my giving of my life to young blacks - that fulfilled his legacy," she said.
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