Rev. Peter Johnson was the youngest staff member to serve under Martin Luther King Jr. at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Photo by Rasy Ran

Rev. Peter Johnson was the youngest staff member to serve under Martin Luther King Jr. at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Photo by Rasy Ran

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke these words, and every Jan. 16, we honor him. His non-violent activism in the Civil Rights movement played a pivotal role in ending the legal segregation of African-American citizens, and in the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He led the charge in these hard-fought battles, inspiring and enlightening folks along the way — and some of your neighbors are among those who joined him in the fight for justice.

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Longtime M Streets neighbors Mark and Donna Herbener remember those turbulent times. Mark was a young, green minister just a few years out of divinity school in 1961, pastoring a church in Richardson. He and Donna, who are white, attended a lecture by Ralph Lord Roy, author of “Apostles of Discord,” a treatise on bigotry in the Christian faith.

“We had to fight this city’s leaders to open the theaters for this movie.” But open they did.

They could talk of nothing else on the drive home that evening. Then and there, they made the decision to volunteer their services at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, a struggling, historically African-American congregation in South Dallas, which had been without a pastor for more than a year.

They promptly moved into the parsonage next door to the church and got to work. Word soon spread that Mt. Olive was a “safe place” for Civil Rights groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to plan sit-ins, freedom rides and other protests. And, despite a tight budget, the church always found a way to bail out those arrested fighting for justice and help pay their fines.

The Herbeners participated in more marches, protests and picket lines than they can count and even met Dr. King in 1962. They also found their own ways, within the church, to challenge the status quo. Donna remembers a hot summer day in the early 1960s when she took a youth group from church to the pool in Tenison Park. Up until then, no one else had had the courage to integrate the public pool. Police quickly arrived, surrounding the pool, expecting trouble. They found none — all was peaceful — and a point was made.

Mark led the church for 26 years, leaving when he was elected bishop. But the activism continued, including their participation in the Forsyth County Civil Rights march in 1987. Two years later, Mark and his wife led a group of Lutheran bishops and spouses to the banks of the Trinity River where three slaves had been hanged in 1863 following a slave revolt.

Shoulder-to-shoulder with the Herbeners was the Rev. Peter Johnson, a man whose Civil Rights roots run deep. At age 17, he headed up the youth chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Plaquemines, La., and then became a student organizer for SCLC under King. He would be Dr. King’s youngest staff member, working closely with Jesse Jackson and John Lewis.

Johnson participated in all the major protests — Albany, Birmingham and Selma, among others — and at age 18 led three busloads of people to hear King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C. “I was at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial,” he recalls, “when Dr. King delivered his speech.”

Under James Farmer, Johnson served as youth organizer for Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). He describes the days when CORE established “freedom schools,” at which blacks were taught how to pass a literacy exam, a voting requirement at the time. “And we taught how to have the courage and dignity to walk into the courthouse and register to vote.” It was not an easy task. “The fear was real, the intimidation was real.”

After King’s assassination in 1968, Hollywood producers created a documentary of King’s life. It was to run for one day in 800 cities. Only one city refused to open its theaters to the film: Dallas.

Johnson was dispatched by CORE to Dallas to attempt a resolution. “I was reluctant,” he remembers, because he had been “warned” about our city. “We had to fight this city’s leaders to open the theaters for this movie.” But open they did.

His job done, Johnson was ready to return home when local black leaders approached him for his help with a housing crisis in the Fair Park area. Many were losing their homes as the city exercised eminent domain. Attempts at negotiations failed until Johnson, along with the Herbeners and other Civil Rights activists, threatened to block the city’s New Year’s Day Cotton Bowl Parade.

Johnson received a call on New Year’s Eve from then-mayor Eric Johnson, who left a party to meet with the activists in his office. They eventually reached an agreement. “Nonviolence prevailed,” smiles Johnson. Still, Johnson understood the danger of the climate and went into hiding for a spell.

Now well-known, Johnson was again approached by black neighborhood leaders. This time the issue was unfair hiring practices at Safeway, the dominant grocery chain at the time. “Folks couldn’t get jobs where they spent their money.”

Meetings with the CEO of the chain produced no results. A boycott of Safeway ensued. All day, every day for eight months, picketers showed up with their signs. “We were able to mobilize the community,” says Johnson. “There were African-Americans, whites, Christians, Jews … it was a marvelous rainbow coalition.”

When Johnson’s life again was threatened, he went back into hiding, organizing the boycott under the radar by sending out messages and instructions on local radio stations.

The chain eventually began to lose business and multiple locations closed. Other grocery stores expanded and improved their hiring practices.

Johnson’s activism continues to this day, not only with Civil Rights but also touching on homelessness, hunger and gun violence. And always with King’s calm and loving approach of nonviolence. Johnson reflects, “Your methodology to achieve your goals should be as pure and dignified as the goals you hope to achieve.”

Various markers of Rev. Peter Johnson’s career. (Photo by Rasy Ran)

Various markers of Rev. Peter Johnson’s career. (Photo by Rasy Ran)

Various markers of Rev. Peter Johnson’s career. (Photo by Rasy Ran)