An Extraordinary Life
by Jack O’Donnell
Byron Johnson in his baseball uniform. (Courtesy Denver Public Library, Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library, Byron Johnson Collection)
Byron Johnson’s U.S. Army portrait. (Courtesy Denver Public Library, Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library, Byron Johnson Collection)
Negro Leagues Ball Player and Civil Rights Activist Byron Johnson
September 11, 1911-September 24, 2005
Byron Johnson was an athlete, educator, and advocate for civil rights. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, the grandson of a slave, his life would take on numerous challenges and opportunities.
As a child, Johnson excelled in athletics and, after graduating from Wiley College in Texas, one of the first black colleges established west of the Mississippi River, Johnson went on to play baseball in the Negro Leagues, an association of baseball teams made up of black players who were excluded and segregated from white-only professional leagues. Johnson played shortstop for the Kansas City Monarchs (1937-1938) and infielder for Satchel Paige’s traveling team (1939-1940). Johnson was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1941; he served in Europe until 1945. During his time in the service, like other African Americans, Johnson served in a segregated unit; his request to enter Officer Candidate School (OCS) was declined given that African Americans were not allowed to serve as officers (only white officers were allowed to lead all-black units). As such, Johnson described his time in the military one of the hardest time periods of his life.
In 1958, at the height of racial tension and violence, Johnson left the South and settled his family in Denver, Colorado where he lived with his wife Christine, an elementary school teacher, and their children, daughter Jacquelyn, and son, Joseph, who died of lupus at age 14. Johnson worked as a U.S. postal clerk until his retirement in the 1970s; he also gave traveling lectures about racial discrimination. His wife encouraged the latter endeavor, and inspired the creation of the “Christine and Byron Johnson Memorial Lecture Series” at their Methodist Church in Denver. The lectures served to raise awareness on race in the United States. Johnson is remembered as a modest individual, one who reflected on his experiences as such. In his biography, Legacy of a Monarch, Johnson says, “Most of us focus on trying to get through life the best way we can. I am not extraordinary, but I guess I’ve had an extraordinary life.” He died from prostate cancer at the age of 94, the oldest Negro Leagues ball player in Colorado.[1]
Footnotes ↓
[1] Information for this biography obtained from Jan Sumner, Legacy of a Monarch: an American Journey (JaDan Publishing Company LLC, 2005) and Robert Sanchez, “Former all-star carried legacy of black baseball,” The Denver Post, September 26, 2005.
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