Col. Stone Johnson (1918 - 2012)

Colonel Stone Johnson, born on this day in 1918, was a black worker in the civil rights movement who served as a bodyguard for homes, businesses, and people involved in the movement.

A railway worker and union representative by trade, he got involved in the civil rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama in the mid 1950s, working with Fred Shuttlesworth. He started a civil rights organization called the Civil Rights Guards that protected homes and business involved in the movement, usually while armed.

Among Johnson's notable acts was helping carry a Ku Klux Klan bomb away from Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL and serving as a bodyguard to Martin Luther King Jr. He also provided armed protection to non-violent activists in Anniston, Alabama during the 1961 Freedom Rides, rescuing them from a segregationist mob.

An oft-repeated remark of Johnson, when asked how he managed to protect civil rights leaders, given his commitment to non-violence, Johnson replied, "With my non-violent .38 special."

Read more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Stone_Johnson

https://www.al.com/spotnews/2012/01/bir … ctivi.html