Cohen High School renames library in honor of La. Supreme Court Justice Bernette J. Johnson (Ret.)
7th October 2024 · 0 Comments
By C. C. Campbell-Rock
Contributing Writer
“You have served as a shining example of what can happen and what you can be when you set your goals to do so. And when you did it, it was much more difficult to do,” said U.S. Congressman Troy A. Carter Sr., addressing retired Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette J. Johnson.
Carter was referring to the segregated atmosphere that Johnson was born into and navigated. “You stepped up against all odds, obstacles, and tricks…tricks….But you survived.”
The audience, a diverse cross-section of the lives Johnson has touched, sat in rapt attention.
Johnson attended McCarthy School, now MLK Senior High School, in the ninth ward near her home. Once her parents bought their home in Pontchartrain Park, Johnson attended Walter L. Cohen High School. She rode the bus to school and back every day.
Although the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision ended segregated schools, when Johnson graduated as valedictorian from Cohen in 1960, Louisiana had just begun, by court order, to integrate its schools.
Referring to the Chief Justice as a “trailblazer,” Carter said, “It is because of the cane you cut, the path you created, that so many young women and men can see the path to success. Because of people like you, we will have the first African-American woman president of the United States of America, Kamala Harris.”
“Because there couldn’t have been anyone to see, believe, or dream this could happen had there not been trailblazers like you,” he added.
Carter presented Johnson with a framed celebratory certificate from his office, Louisiana’s 1st Congressional District, quoting the old Black church euphemism, “Give them their flowers while they are living.”
Senator Royce Duplessis said he is where he is in large part because of Chief Johnson. In 2014, Johnson called him, and Duplessis became a law clerk at the Louisiana Supreme Court. “Chief, you’re my hero,” he said. “When these students enter this library, they will remember that ‘She walked these halls.’”
“I’m overwhelmed with gratitude to see so many faces, my pastors, and for so many people who came out today,” Johnson told the attendees.
Johnson explained to the audience how she got to Cohen. Students in her district went to Clark High School, which had a platoon system. You attended Clark from 7 a.m. to noon or noon to 5 p.m. Johnson had participated in Andrew J. Bell on the platoon system. The platoon system piled students upon each other, so she wanted to avoid returning to that system.
Her mother worked in a sewing factory, and her father worked in construction. Her parents wouldn’t take time off to help her fill out forms to go to McDonogh #35, so she had to figure it out for herself. She decided to go to Cohen, giving the school an uptown address. She lived in Pontchartrain Park then, so she had to ride the bus to school and back daily.
“This is what segregation does; it has stupid rules, so you must do stupid things,” she said of having to give an uptown address when she lived downtown.
After graduating from Cohen as valedictorian, Johnson attended Spellman College and LSU Law School. At LSU, Johnson made history as one of only two Black women to graduate from law school in 1969.
Johnson developed a passion for assisting others through the law while working summers with attorneys of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, working to integrate public schools in the South. After working as managing attorney at New Orleans Legal Assistance Corporation (NOLAC) – now known as Southeast Louisiana Legal Services – in 1984, she was elected the first female Orleans Civil District Court Judge, serving for ten years before becoming Chief Judge in 1994.
Determined to break glass ceilings and go where no other Black woman had gone, in 1994, following the retirement of Justice Revius Ortique, Jr., she ran for and was elected to serve on the Louisiana Supreme Court, making history as the first Black female to sit on that bench.
On February 1, 2013, Chief Justice Johnson, blazing a trail for generations to come, was sworn in as the Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court.
Johnson’s ascent to the vaulted position was not without opposition. As the only Black Associate Justice on the LSC and having been elected to a temporary eighth seat aka “Chisom Seat,” via a Consent Decree arising from a successful voter dilution case decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, the other LSC justices tried to keep her from becoming the chief justice. She took the LSC to court and won.
She served as the chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court from 2013 to 2020.
“It was an honor, and I was overwhelmed that my school honored me,” Johnson said about the renaming of Cohen’s Library after her.
Although she is retired, Johnson has been mentoring students, bringing them to the Louisiana Supreme Court, giving tours and discussing civil rights and the Constitution. “It’s just been a joy to be a part of the school again,” she said. “The civics class is an annual piece now. We want them to understand their democracy, their government, the right to vote, and this is their country. We also encourage them to vote and participate in the jury process.”
Walter L. Cohen High School opened in 1949 on Dryades Street and was named for Walter L. Cohen, a Black politician and businessman who was born a free man of color in 1860. During a time when few African-Americans held political office, Cohen served as the Registrar of U. S. Land Office during the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt and the Comptroller of Customs under President Harding.
This article originally published in the October 7, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
