Page 18 THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – Friday, February 14, 2020 CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH Lee G. Johnson “The Judge from Cherry Street” L ee G. Johnson grew up in what would eventually become a single-parent household in the Cherry Street projects. With very little to call their own, Lee’s mother Geraldine would remind him and his brother George to be grateful for what they had and to use it to the best of their ability. Lee took his mother’s advice to heart. While she worked at various jobs to support the family, including at the state Commission on Indian Aff airs, Lee and his brother would play sports and all the other games that the project kids enjoyed. At Everett High School, Lee was a good student but truly excelled on the basketball court. Lee was named All-Scholastic, All-State and AllNew England for his exploits on the court, but he knew that his future was not in the NBA but elsewhere. He attended a junior college before attending UMass. At UMass, the coaching staff was hoping to convince Lee to play hoops for the Minutemen. He gave them a courtesy tryout, but after a one-on-one drill with a teammate by the name of Julius “Dr. J” Irving, Lee came to the realization that the difference between high school phenom and college star was too great and he just didn’t have the desire to work that hard at a game. Lee wasn’t going to do anything halfway. After graduation from UMass with a degree in Sociology, Lee worked as a caseworker at the Charles Street Jail before becoming deputy director of human services, and eventually director. Lee also taught history and civics for a year at the Parlin when it was a junior high school. While he was attending the New England School of Law, he worked as a Middlesex County Superior Court probation offi cer. After passing the bar exam, Lee went into private practice in Everett and Medford. In 1998, Lee announced that he would seek the Republican nomination for the offi ce of Middlesex County District Attorney. Lee would be unopposed in the Republican primary but would lose the general election to Democrat Martha Coakley. Lee was the fi rst African American to ever seek the offi ce of Middlesex County District Attorney. Lee returned to private practice until the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court removed the Middlesex County Registrar of Probate for a litany of violations of the public trust. Appointing a new Registrar to serve unJudge Lee G. Johnson, former First Justice for Malden District Court til the next election fell on Governor Paul Cellucci. When the name Lee G. Johnson was suggested to the Governor, he didn’t hesitate, and Lee G. Johnson became Registrar of Probate in August of 1999. Lee was now the fi rst African American to hold a county-wide offi ce in Middlesex County. Lee immediately went to work trying to drag the Registry into the 20th century by computerizing the offi ce. The computers that he had installed in the offi ce were the fi rst ever used there. As a Republican, Lee hoped that he could win the position in the next election, but he was certainly realistic about his chances in an overwhelmingly Democratic county. However, in typical Lee style, he worked hard to improve the office, provide better services and create a positive work environment. Lee had a job to do and he was going to do it to the best of his ability regardless of the circumstances. As expected, Lee lost the election; Governor Cellucci appointed him to the Civil Service Commission. In April 2001, Paul Cellucci resigned after George W. Bush was nominated, and the U.S. Senate confi rmed his appointment as U.S. Ambassador to Canada. Governor Cellucci was succeeded by Lt. Governor Jane Swift, who became the first woman in Massachusetts history to occupy the governor’s office. In 2002, Governor Swift nominated and the Governor’s Council approved the appointment of Lee G. Johnson as First Justice of the Malden District Court. He was the fi rst African American to serve in that position at the court, and he would serve in that capacity for the longest duration in that court’s history. There is no way to adequately describe Judge Johnson’s infl uence on the Malden District JOHNSON | SEE PAGE 26
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