Arnold Johnson (activist)

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

Johnson was born on September 23, 1904, in Seattle, to parents who had immigrated from Sweden and Finland to Minnesota.^[1] Johnson joined the Socialist Party in 1929, while studying at Union Theological Seminary.^[2] Johnson became politically active in the early 1930s, working with pacifist groups like the Fellowship of Reconciliation.^[3] Following the advice of his professor, Harry F. Ward, Johnson traveled to Harlan in 1932 to aid striking miners.^[4] Johnson graduated from Union Theological Seminary in 1932 with a bachelor's degree in divinity.^[5]

Johnson became a member of the American Workers Party, led by A.J. Muste.^[6] In October 1936, Johnson joined the Communist Party, defecting from the Workers Party with Louis Budenz.^[7] Johnson and the other departing members opposed the merger of the American Workers Party with the Trotskyist Communist League of America.^[8]

In 1940, Johnson was the Communist Party's candidate for governor of Ohio.^[9] He was the leader of the Ohio Communist Party between 1940 and 1947.^[10] Johnson was arrested in Pittsburgh on June 20, 1951, and charged under the Smith Act with conspiring to overthrow the government.^[11] At the time of his arrest, Johnson was serving as the Communist Party's chairman for Western Pennsylvania.^[12] On February 3, 1953, Judge Edward J. Dimock found Johnson guilty of violating the Smith Act and sentenced him to three years in prison.^[13]

Johnson represented the Communist Party in discussions about the Independent-Socialist ticket in 1958, but left following disagreements about whether the group should nominate Corliss Lamont as a gubernatorial candidate or support W. Averell Harriman^[14]

Johnson exchanged several letters with Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963, after Oswald wrote to the Communist Party asking for political advice.^[15] As a result, Johnson provided testimony to the Warren Commission following the Kennedy assassination.^[16]

Johnson was Communist Party's representative on the steering committee of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam.^[16] In the spring of 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. demanded that Johnson's name be removed from the letterhead of the Committee because of his Communist views.^[17] Due to illness, Johnson abandoned his political work for the Communist Party in 1979.^[5]