We are proud to pay tribute to Nellie Stone Johnson, an African American civil rights activist and union leader from Minneapolis, for everything she did to fight for labor and union rights. Johnson’s work was instrumental to the founding of the DFL and was fueled by her passion for working for the rights of working Minnesotans. We are proud to carry on her legacy as we work to build a better Minnesota.
While Johnson was growing up in rural Minnesota, her father was incredibly involved in the community as he served on the school board and organized fellow farmers into cooperatives to protect farming interests. It was at the University of Minnesota where Johnson began to get involved in labor organizing herself. While working at the Minneapolis Athletic Club, she encountered workplace discrimination and anti-union employers. In response, she and other employees unionized. Johnson went on to serve on her local union’s contract committee and end segregation in the club’s work facilities.
As she became increasingly involved in politics, she would meet figures like Hubert Humphrey, who she advised in his run for Minneapolis mayor in 1943 and 1945. Because Minnesota unions supported the Farmer-Labor Party in the 1930s and 40s, Johnson also became involved with the Farmer-Labor Association. Humphrey and Johnson both went on to serve on the committee that oversaw the merger between the Democratic and Farmer-Labor Party, creating what is now the DFL.
Johnson continued her involvement with the DFL, helped forge Minneapolis’s Fair Employment Commission, and helped pass Minnesota’s Fair Employment and Fair Housing Laws while serving on the Library Board. After six years on the board, Johnson would go on to open her own tailor shop and manage the successful city council campaign of Van White, the first African American on Minneapolis City Council.
Though she retired at age 91, Johnson never stopped supporting the causes she believed in. She passed away in Minneapolis at age 96. The Nellie Stone Johnson Community School and the Nellie Stone Johnson Scholarship are both named in her honor.