She Was The First Friend I'd Ever Had That Was Different Than Me
Katy and Ms. Johnson in 2003
The following is a reflection written by Katy Wade, SOS summer staff alumni from 2003:
I found a cache of old photos while organizing and am so happy I found this one. I actually looked for it recently and thought maybe I had lost it. I’ve been thinking about Ms Alberta Johnson so much recently, because I’ve been watching a lot of Jeopardy, which was our special time together every day.
This picture is from 2003 when I first met Ms Johnson, when the non-profit I worked for in Memphis was doing repairs to her home. She’s 87 in the photo and was so mad that I took a picture of her without her hair on. My relationship with Ms Johnson was special because she was the first friend I’d ever had that was different than me. I grew up white and middle class and then went to a college that was filled with more white, middle class people.
Ms Johnson grew up in a family of 10 in Mississippi. Her family were sharecroppers, still working for the same landowners they had during slavery. She did tell me their relationship was friendly and the landowners even let her marry her husband on the back porch of the mansion. After her husband returned from WWII, they moved to Memphis where he worked for a custodial company (he cleaned the Stax Records offices!!).
In 1966 they opened their own business, a vacuum store and repair shop. Unfortunately, it was one of the business that burned in the Summer Ave Riots following the assassination of MLK two years later.
Ms Johnson passed away 6 years after this photo was taken and we remained close until her death. In the almost two years that I spent in Memphis, I almost never missed an episode of Jeopardy; we had such a blast together. She loved me as much as I loved her. She used to tease “…everybody wonder why I had a white grandbaby show up outta nowhere.” In times like this I think about all the hardship she saw in her life and what she would say to me right now. I’m forever grateful for knowing her and our friendship.