[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 54 (Monday, April 16, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E532]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 HONORING DR. GEORGE ALVIN ``G.A.'' JOHNSON FOR HIS PUBLIC SERVICE AND 
                  ADVOCACY TO THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, April 16, 2012

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a 
remarkable civil rights advocate and public servant, Dr. George Alvin 
``G.A.'' Johnson. Dr. Johnson earned his Doctorate of Divinity in 1979 
from the Trinity Church Association in Shreveport, Louisiana.
  He was born in Massies Mill, Virginia to the parents of Samuel and 
Virginia Johnson on January 29, 1944. In 1963, after moving from 
Massies Mill to Washington, D.C. he stood on the grounds of the Lincoln 
Memorial to hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. deliver his ``I Have a 
Dream'' speech. As a young nineteen year old with an impressionable 
mind, Dr. King's speech became a defining moment in Dr. Johnson's life.
  In 1970, seven years after Dr. King's infamous ``I Have a Dream'' 
speech, Johnson moved to Rollilng Fork, Mississippi to take an active 
part in the civil rights movement. His first active role was in a 
position that was both admired and feared was becoming President of the 
Voter's League in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. As President, Dr. Johnson 
began to experience the indoctrination practices of the ``traditions of 
the south.''
  After leaving his position as the President of the Voter's League in 
Rolling Fork, he took a position as manager of ``Freedom Village.'' 
``Freedom Village'' was one of the many strike cities that began 
emerging throughout Mississippi, as African Americans walked off 
plantations in protest of Jim Crow laws and unfair sharecropping 
practices, Dr. Johnson was also manager of one of the first self-help 
housing projects in the Mississippi Delta.
  In 1971 Dr. Johnson moved to Greenville, Mississippi and became 
active in Delta Ministries sponsored by the Council of Churches of New 
York, New York. In 1976, he extended his ministry to television airing 
on WABG Channel 6 in Greenwood for 27 years. In 1988, Dr. Johnson 
founded GAIN, INC. (Goals, Aims, Intention Network) which stemmed from 
his prison ministry at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, known as 
Parchman Farm located in Sunflower County, Mississippi. He now resides 
in Charleson, Mississippi where he continues to be an advocate for 
children, the poor, the disadvantaged, and the displaced.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Dr. George 
Alvin Johnson for his dedication and service as a civil rights advocate 
and pioneer during the 1960s civil rights movement in the great state 
of Mississippi.

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