He was Miami’s second black judge. Overtown’s native son honored by legal community.

Celebrating anniversaries and milestones is a reason for some groups to plan special parties.

Contemplating its 20th anniversary, one Miami law firm took another approach — it commissioned a bust of the late Miami-Dade Judge John David Johnson, the second black judge in the county’s history and the fourth in Florida.

“The lawyers and staff of Hunton Andrews Kurth decided to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the opening of our Miami office by honoring the struggle for equal justice in our community. We could not find a more fitting tribute to that history than to commission a bust of Judge Johnson, a true pioneer for justice,’’ said Juan Enjamio, managing partner of the firm’s Miami office. “The bust will be a lasting reminder of his contributions and a challenge to future generations of lawyers and judges to uphold his legacy.”

H.T. Smith, a Miami criminal defense, personal injury and civil rights attorney, suggested the idea to the firm. Smith was the founding president of the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. Bar Association; president of the Florida Chapter of the National Bar Association; and first director of FIU College of Law’s Trial Advocacy Program. He serves on the University of Miami board of trustees and is chairman of the board of the Gwen Cherry Park Foundation.

“The unveiling of the bust of the late great Judge John D. Johnson at a celebration hosted by judges of Miami-Dade County is a significant recognition of the contributions that he made in opening the vaults of opportunity for many African American judges who have followed in his trailblazing footsteps,” Smith said. “Judge Johnson will forever be a source of pride to future generations and a role model for those seeking to demonstrate a consistent commitment to excellence. Judge Johnson’s legacy is now cemented in perpetuity.”

Smith, who was mentored by Johnson, a pioneer lawyer and jurist active in civil rights, discussed the idea of the tribute with his colleague and trial attorney, John Kozyak.

Kozyak, founder of the Kozyak Mentoring Foundation, arranged a field trip with minority law school students to Miami’s Black Police Museum. It was there he learned about Johnson and other pioneers who upheld the law in Miami’s Colored Town, which was what Overtown was called.

Kozyak agreed with Smith’s suggestion, and they encouraged the firm to consider honoring Johnson. The firm hired Brian Owens, sculptor and painter who uses classical techniques to depict contemporary subjects, to create the bust.

Owens viewed photos of Judge Johnson during various stages of Johnson’s life: a Howard University law school graduate working at the Pentagon; outings with his beloved wife, Johnalie; a Miami practicing attorney and civil rights activist with his law school classmate, G. E. Graves; and as a young jurist.

The result: a stunning bronze statue that captures Johnson’s essence in texture, scale and form.

Members of Johnson’s family unveiled the bust Tuesday at the first-ever Black History Month Program for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in collaboration with the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. Bar Association. The Honorable William Thomas, a Circuit Court Judge in Miami-Dade County, organized the program held at the Dade County Courthouse.

Calvin Hughes, a news anchor for Local 10, emceed the event.

William Snowden, director of the Vera Institute of Justice and keynote speaker, discussed how implicit bias and racial anxiety have had a deleterious effect on American justice.

Johnson grew up witnessing that firsthand. Johnson was the youngest of seven children of Bahamian immigrants, Samuel D. and Ida Ellen Roberts Johnson. The Johnsons sent all of their children to college, at a time when Samuel was an estate caretaker and Ida washed people’s laundry for a living.

Johnson, who was born in Miami’s Colored Town, graduated from Booker T. Washington Junior/Senior High School, Class of 1931. He earned a bachelor’s degree from West Virginia State College, then a law degree from Howard University, where he served as chief justice of Sigma Delta Tau Legal Fraternity.

He worked at the Pentagon during and after law school before returning to Miami in 1947 with his new wife Johnalie. He began his law practice out of his brother Dr. S. H. Johnson’s radiology clinic in Overtown.

In 1955, he became Miami-Dade County’s second black judge since Reconstruction, and the fourth black judge in Florida, serving from 1955 to 1959.

He tried approximately 50,000 cases during his term on the bench. He heard cases not at the courthouse, but at the blacks-only police station in Overtown. And black judges wore suits, as they were not allowed to wear robes at that time.

Johnson often tried cases with other legal notables such as Thurgood Marshall, a Howard University law school alumni who would become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. He also worked with Frank Reeves and Graves, his law school classmate.

They won cases that led to racial integration in places such as the Orange Bowl Stadium and the city-owned Miami Springs Golf Course.

The Miami Springs case involved African-American caddies who weren’t allowed to play the course where they worked. Johnson and Graves sued the city. The NAACP joined after the Florida Supreme Court sided with the city. At the time, Marshall was the NAACP’s general counsel.

The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which sent it back to the state for review. In 1954, blacks were given equal access to play at Miami’s golf courses.

Johnson also helped to establish programs to benefit the poor, such as Miami-Dade County’s Food Stamp Program, the Family Health Clinic and the Model Cities Legal Services Program.

He was also active in voter registration drives and the Greater Miami Urban League’s highly successful Operation Big Vote campaign in the 1960s.

Johnson passed away in 2011 at the age of 98. His legacy as a lawyer, judge, civil rights activist and family man lives on.

Johnson’s legacy inspired many of his family members to choose law as their profession: nephew, retired Dade County Judge A. Leo Adderly; grandniece, Andrea Jones Burns, esquire, Philadelphia; grandniece, Katherine Fields Kpehyee Marsh, esquire, New York; and cousin, Stanley E. Johnson, Jr., esquire, Miami.

I am proud to say that Judge John D. Johnson was my mother’s youngest brother.

The statue is on exhibit in Overtown at the Black Police Precinct & Courthouse Museum, 480 NW 11th Street, Miami, Florida 33136, https://historicalblackprecinct.org/.

Dorothy Jenkins Fields, Ph.D., is a historian and founder of the Black Archives, History & Research Foundation of South Florida Inc. Send feedback to djf@bellsouth.net