Look back on the lives of African Americans in Arlington during the years between Jackie Robinson’s big league debut and the arrival of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King on the national conscience.
The Ernest E. Johnson Collection, 1948-1955, from the Library’s Virginia Room, features remarkable images of those everyday and special activities as created by the Arlington Department of Parks and Recreation’s “Negro Recreation Section.” Johnson was a vital figure in the County’s African American community and ultimately oversaw the desegregation of Arlington recreation in the early 1960s. He went on to serve the County for two more decades.
The Ernest E. Johnson Collection measures .21 linear feet and includes 76 black and white photographs. The collection was donated to the Library in September 2001 by Johnson’s wife, Mignon.
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The Virginia Room officially preserves the County’s history as made–and captured–by people like Ernest E. Johnson. With our growing digital tools, Arlington Public Library is making that history more available than ever before.
Through the Library website, our archives are now always open. Find this collection and more online in our Arlington’s Story Digital Archive