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Sarah H. Johnson
Sarah H. Johnson (born March 10, 1938) is an African American woman who has been active on behalf of her race and her community. Johnson was elected the first African American member of the Greenville City Council. She was employed by Mississippi Action for Community Education and was area director for People's Educational Program, a countywide Headstart program. Johnson is a former member and vice-chairperson of the Mississippi Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights and a former member of the Continuing Committee of the International Women's Year.

Early life and education
Ms. Johnson was born on March 10, 1938 in Charleston, South Carolina, to Louisa Hutchinson. She grew up in Anniston, Alabama, and attended the public schools of that city. Upon graduation from Cobb Avenue High School as valedictorian of her class, she attended Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Later life
Mrs. Johnson has held several administrative positions in local government and has been active in local and national politics. She was employed by Mississippi Action for Community Education and was area director for People’s Educational Program, a county-wide Headstart program. She is a former member and vice-chairperson of the Mississippi Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights and a former member of the Continuing Committee of the International Women’s Year. She served as a 1972 Fellow of the Mississippi Institute of Politics and during the Carter Administration attended affairs by invitation at the White House several times. In 1979, she ran as a part of a slate for the Public Service Commission in the Central District of Mississippi.

Legacy
Among her numerous citations and awards, Mrs. Johnson was presented the Woman of the Year Award by the Utility Club at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City on June 8, 1975. Her biography appears in Who’s Who Among Black Americans; and she is listed in the National Roster of Black Elected Officials, Mississippi’s Black Women, and the History of Blacks in Greenville, Mississippi, from 1868 to 1975. She also has a street honoring her name, Sarah Johnson, in Greenville, Mississippi. In 2010, Khazan was the recipient of the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal from the Smithsonian Institution.

Personal life
Johnson married a ministerial student, Ned Howard Johnson. To this marriage were born four children: Geneva Louise Johnson, Ned Howard Johnson, Jr., Yvonne Elizabeth Johnson and Karen Yvette Johnson. The Johnson family moved to Greenville, Mississippi, in 1964. After she and Mr. Johnson divorced in 1967, Mrs. Johnson married Cornelius Carter on December 24, 1977, but continues to use Sarah H. Johnson as her professional name.

Aside from her interest in politics and civic affairs, Mrs. Johnson has been active in several other spheres of life. In 1974, she earned a radio licensing diploma from Elkins Institute in Memphis, Tennessee. That same year she took three Federal Communications Commission examinations and received her first-class radio operator’s license. She has also graduated from the Mississippi Realtor’s Institute and acquire her real estate broker’s license from the Mississippi Real Estate Commission. She is a member of Revels Memorial United Methodist Church and a former member of the Board of Church and Society, a national board of the United Methodist Church.

In December of 1976, Ms. Johnson took the swine flu shot and in January of 1977 became ill. From 1977 on, she went to several medical clinics and hospitals around the country trying to get a diagnosis for her illness. In 1978 after doing research on her own, she discovered that she had Multiple Sclerosis. Although she informed the doctors of her view regarding her illness, she was not able to receive a diagnosis until November of 1982. In the meantime, her Multiple Sclerosis has progressed to the point where she now walks with a cane, her energy level is very low, and soon she will need the use of a wheelchair in order to get around.