Series 4: Ina and Booker T. Johnson papers, 1921-2025, inclusive
Scope and Contents
Series 4: Ina Butcher and Booker T. Johnson papers, 1921-2025, includes materials related to the family, work, education, and activities of Ina and Booker T. Johnson. Types of materials include correspondence, notebooks, photographs, programs, greeting cards and invitations, certificates, and passports and other forms of identification.
This series includes materials related to Brooklyn schools and the Johnsons' education. There are report cards for Ina and her ten children. The children's report cards are usually accompanied by a graduation program or other school activity ephemera. Ina's papers she wrote for her bachelor's and master's degrees at Brooklyn College, written from 1994 to 2003, are also included.
Materials from Ina Johnson's late high school/post-high school years include invitations to dances in Harlem sponsored by the Union Boys and other organizations. Venues include the Renaissance Casino, Lido Ballroom, Criterion Studio, and the Congress Casino.
Ina Johnson's creative and civic activities are well-documented in this series. Creative pursuits are shown through sewing patterns, collected poetry and prose, and a scrapbook of clippings from the recurring newspaper section "Poems You Ought to Know," and work from a calligraphy workshop. The folder titled "Politics - Police" includes Ina Johnson's account of her arrest with Reverends Al Sharpton and Herbert Daughtry at a protest against the murder of Amadou Diallo on March 23, 1999.
Ina Johnson's budget notepads in this series, dated 1977 to 2000, document income and expenses with some receipts and small notes tucked into the pages.
Also included are several issues of the Johnson Family News and Johnson Family Financial News sent out to family members to provide updates and teach younger members of the family financial literacy. The Johnson children and grandchildren also created two Kwanzaa books for Ina Johnson that are included in this series and contain artwork and historical writings.
Butcher and Johnson family histories and genealogy are included in Ina Johnson's 75th birthday celebration booklet (produced in 1996) and the memorial books for Ina and Booker T. Johnson (both produced in 2025).
Arrangement
This series is arranged chronologically.
Biographical Note
Ina Butcher was born on July 21, 1921 in Havana, Cuba to Alexander and Maud Butcher. Soon after, the Butchers moved to New Orleans, LA and then New York after Maud Butcher died. She and her siblings stayed with different family members in Manhattan and Brooklyn as Alexander Butcher looked for work. She attended P.S. 3 and P.S. 4 in Brooklyn. She went to Julia Ward Howe Junior High School (J.H.S. 81) and Wadleigh High School in Harlem, Manhattan. She graduated from Haaren High School on 10th Avenue in Manhattan in 1940.
After graduating from high school, Ina worked as a stenographer for the National Youth Administration and moved to Washington, DC to work for the Chief of Finance. However, the death of her friend, Maude Wilson, brought her back to New York where she lived with her friend's family at 98 Morningside Avenue.
While working at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Ina met Booker T. Johnson and they married on November 23, 1943 at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Harlem. Booker Telifero Johnson was born on October 20, 1906 in Union, South Carolina to Frank Jordan Johnson and Julia Gleen Johnson. He was the oldest of eleven siblings. He first married Janie Harris, also from South Carolina, on April 23, 1932 in Brooklyn. Booker T. Johnson worked as a tractor trailer driver and a cab driver.
Ina and Booker T. Johnson had ten children: Elliot (1944-2016), Douglas (also known as Krip) (1946-2019), Adele (1947- ), Margaret (1949- ), Monica (1952- ), Valerie (1953- ), Genevieve (1954- ), Orlando (1954- ), Pamela (1957- ), and Randolph (1957- ). In 1949, the family moved to the Marcy Houses at 123 Nostrand Avenue. In 1967, Johnson bought 571 Decatur Street. Most of the children attended the St. Ambrose Church School at 222 Tompkins Avenue.
In 1964, Ina returned to her work as a stenographer at the State of New York Banking Department and in the late 1970s, she began working as a secretary at Boys and Girls High School on Fulton Street. She retired in 1986. Booker T. Johnson died on November 25, 1987.
In 1974, she received her associate's degree in secretarial sciences from New York City Community College. She received two degrees from Brooklyn College: a bachelor's degree in African Studies in 1983 and a master's in History in 2003.
She was an active member of Our Lady of Good Counsel Roman Catholic Church. She was a member of the 500 Decatur Street Block Association and served on the 81st Precinct Community Council. Ina Johnson was involved with the group Sisters Against South African Apartheid (SASAA) and was arrested at a protest against the murder of Amadou Diallo on March 23, 1999. Ina Johnson died on January 30, 2025.
[Ina Butcher birth certificate], 1921-1960, inclusive
Scope and Contents
Includes the original Cuban birth certificate and a later version translated into English.
[Pilgrim Holiness Church certificate], 1930
["Poems You Ought to Know" scrapbook], circa 1930-circa 1940, inclusive
[Ina Butcher report cards], 1934-1940, inclusive
[Bible excerpt books], circa 1935, inclusive
Junior high school memory book, 1936
Scope and Contents
This folder includes Ina Johnson's autograph book from J.H.S. 81 Julia Ward Howe Junior High School.
[Julia Ward Howe J.H.S. 81 class photograph], 1936
Haaren High School, 1939-1940, inclusive
[Union Boys event invitations], 1939-1940, inclusive
Dance invitations, 1939-1942, inclusive
Entertainment, 1939-1996, inclusive
Scope and Contents
Includes a program signed by opera singer Leontyne Price.
[Brooklyn Public Library card], 1940
[National Youth Administration for New York City], 1940
[Selective service registrations], 1940-1943, inclusive
[Booker T. Johnson Navy identification], 1942
[Booker T. Johnson baptismal certificate], 1942-1970, inclusive
[Ina and Booker T. Johnson wedding], 1943
[Postal Savings System certificates of deposit], 1943
[Ina in Washington, DC], 1943
[Car mortgage and registration], 1943-1944, 1963, inclusive
[St. Ambrose Church confirmation certificates], 1944-1964, inclusive
[Correspondence], 1944-1947, inclusive
[Greeting cards], 1945-1947, inclusive
[Adele Johnson baby book], 1947
[Greeting cards], circa 1950-1958, inclusive
[Ina Butcher certificate of baptism], 1951
[Elliot Johnson report cards and graduation programs], 1952-1962, inclusive
[Prenatal and infant care], 1953-1956, inclusive
[Adele Johnson report cards], 1955-1962, inclusive
[Douglas Johnson schoolwork and graduation programs], 1955-1964, inclusive
[Correspondence], 1956-1967, inclusive
Letters from camp, 1956-1971, inclusive
Scope and Contents
Letters in this folder were sent from Ina and Booker T. Johnson's children attending camps, such as Camp Gorham in the Adirondacks, or at Fresh Air Fund family homes in Chappaqua, New York. Some letters from the host family parents are also included.
[Randolph Johnson birth certificate], 1957
[Music School of the Williamsburg Settlement], 1957-1966, inclusive
[123 Nostrand Avenue], 1958
[Furniture and appliances], 1958-circa 1960, inclusive
[New York Telephone Company bill], 1959
[St. Ambrose Church and School], 1960-1967, inclusive
[Orlando Johnson report cards], 1960-1967, inclusive
[Genevieve Johnson report cards], 1960-1967, inclusive
Uncle Alvin's [Alvin E. Simmons] business card, circa 1960, inclusive
Biographical / Historical
Alvin E. Simmons was Maud Spence's sister's son (Ina Butcher's cousin).
Cooking recipes, circa 1960-circa 2005, inclusive
[Valerie Johnson report cards and graduation programs], 1961-1971, inclusive
[News clippings], 1961-2013, inclusive
[Monica Johnson report cards and graduation invitation], 1962-1966, inclusive
[Margaret Johnson report cards and graduation programs], 1962-1967, inclusive
[Student activity event programs], 1962-1980, inclusive
[Randolph Johnson schoolwork and report cards], 1963-1973, inclusive
[Pamela Johnson schoolwork and report cards], 1964-1967, inclusive
[Maude Hinkson graduation program], 1965
[Douglas Johnson marriage certificate], 1965
[500 Decatur Street Block Association], 1967-2009, inclusive
[Correspondence], circa 1970-1976, inclusive
Certificates of award, 1970-2006, inclusive
Scope and Contents
This folder includes certificates from the Young Women's Christian Association Swimming Program, Our Lady of Good Counsel Roman Catholic Church, African People's Christian Organization, The Literacy Program at Brooklyn Public Library, New York City Council, New York State Assembly, and Edolphus Towns of New York's Tenth Congressional District, among other education and religious programs.
[Vaccination records], 1970-1992, inclusive
[Ina Johnson certificate of citizenship], 1971
[State of New York Banking Department], 1971-1977, inclusive
Family letters from relatives in the Caribbean, 1973-1983, inclusive
Scope and Contents
Correspondents include Phyllis Butcher, Wilbert Rudder, and Kathleen Jackman.
[New York City Community College student materials], 1977-1978, inclusive
Budget notepads, 1977-1978, inclusive
[Like It Is episode transcript], 1978
[Boys and Girls High School employment], 1978-1986, inclusive
[Booker T. Johnson passport], 1979
[Correspondence], 1979
[Derek Parks funeral program], 1979
Scope and Contents
This funeral program relates to Derek Parks who was a son of friends from the Marcy Houses.
Search for 1920s grave in New Orleans, 1979-1993, inclusive
Scope and Contents
This folder contains materials regarding the search for Maud Spence Butcher's grave in Holt Cemetery in New Orleans. It includes photographs of the cemetery and Charity Hospital in 1979. It also includes correspondence between Ina Johnson and the the City of New Orleans asking for assistance in finding the grave dated 1993-1994.
[Ina Johnson passports], 1979-2018, inclusive
Vacation in Mexico, circa 1980, inclusive
Budget notepads, 1980-1981, inclusive
Budget notepads, 1985-1992, inclusive
[Membership cards], 1987-1989, inclusive
[Civic and political involvement], 1987-2008, inclusive
[Correspondence], 1992-1995, inclusive
Johnson Family Newsletter, 1994
Brooklyn College papers, 1994-1997, inclusive
Scope and Contents
The titles of the papers in these folders are:
- "Kwame Nkrumah -- Revolution in Ghana" (1994)
- "The Political Economy of Race and Class in South Africa" (1994)
- "The Immigrant Experience" (1995)
- "A New Deal for Blacks" (1996)
- "Black Man in Red Cuba" (1996)
- "Silent Revolution" (1996)
- "Women in the World of Work" (1997)
- "Lincoln and the Negro" (1997)
Brooklyn College papers, 1999-2000, inclusive
Scope and Contents
The titles of the papers in these folders are:
- "Consolidated Edison Company versus The National Labor Relations Board" (1999)
- "A. Philip Randolph: Pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement" (2000)
Brooklyn College papers, 2003
Scope and Contents
This folder contains Ina Johnson's Master's thesis: "'Making a Way Out of No Way': The Cultural Economy of the Black Beauty Industry (2003).
