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Biography · Civil Rights

Nellie Stone Johnson

1905–2002

United States

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Biography

Nellie Stone Johnson (December 17, 1905 – April 2, 2002) was an American civil rights activist and union organizer. She was the first African-American elected official in Minneapolis and shaped Minnesota politics for 70 years. Johnson helped form the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) and spearheaded the effort to create the first Fair Employment Practices department in the nation. She counseled both Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale and was on the Democratic National Committee in the 1980s.

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Biography text · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source checked 2026-10-20

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