Rev. Peter Johnson, dean of Dallas’ civil right movements, supports our efforts

The Rev. Peter Johnson, a disciple of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., visited the Dallas News Guild park gathering in support. King’s organization sent him on a mission to Dallas in the late 1960s, and he never left. Johnson is considered the dean of the Dallas civil rights movement.

From staging boycotts of dozens of companies that discriminated against minorities to engaging in a 16-day hunger strike on the steps of City Hall, he championed human and workers’ rights. He also ranks as one of The Dallas Morning News’ longest subscribers. He first started taking our paper 51 years ago.

Here are Mr. Johnson’s remarks to Dallas journalists in full:

Listen, what y’all are doing as journalists is extremely important. Don’t ever belittle what you do. Without journalists, without newspapers, without the press, there’s no civil rights movement. Without the journalists in Montgomery, there’s no Rosa Parks. It was journalists that told the world about Rosa Parks and the segregation on buses. So don’t belittle what you do. What you do is extremely important.

I grew up working for Martin King. The division I worked in in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was the division that worked with labor unions. The relationship between labor unions and Martin King is precious. So for me, growing up, working with labor unions, the March on Washington would never have happened without American labor unions.

A legend. The Rev. Peter Johnson, a disciple of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., talking to Dallas journalists this week about the intersection of labor unions and the civil rights movement.

I was doing an interview today with D magazine and I was talking about Pancho Medrano and Selma, Alabama. I met Pancho on the streets of Selma. You know why he was there? He was working for the United Auto Workers, and they sent a bunch of labor workers to help us in Selma. So labor unions have a tremendous kind of precious relationship with the history of the civil rights movement….

So we sing a song. Black folks haven’t got a chance unless we organize. People who work? You don’t have a prayer unless you organize. So organize so you can be united. If I slap you in the face with my hand, that’s no big deal. But if I come together with all of my friends and make a fist, that’s organized. It’s much more important than my open hand where my five fingers are separated.

So organize, organize, organize. That was the word in the civil rights movement. That was the word in the labor movement. The reason maids with money in the East organized a union – and these are people who worked in white people’s kitchens – they organized a union, so that gives them a voice that they did not have individually.

Those of you should know how important you are to me personally and to the work I do. You covered me when I was on the steps of City Hall on a hunger fast – almost 50 years ago – and I had all my hair and I was good looking. I got pictures to prove it!

So the relationship to me and journalists here at The Morning News stands almost 50 years. So I’m here because my friend Miles (Moffeit) asked me to be here. And I asked my friend Rev. Alfred Walker to come because of my age and my health. I’m going to hand the ball off to somebody else. And he’s the pastor, the preacher that I’m going to hand the ball off; so I want you all to know him and treat him as good as you treat me.

You know when you write and tell the truth and don’t be afraid of who you will offend -- that’s your responsibility. May God bless you all.

(He first subscribed to The Morning News in 1969.) “And listen, when I get up in the morning the first thing I do is go outside and get my newspaper .. and drink my coffee and read my newspaper. Now my grandchildren say, “Well, Papa, you can do that on the Internet.” I say, “No, I can’t. I want to hold it in my hands!”