Dr. E. A. Johnson and Mrs. Crittie Johnson, First Offices
One of the few Black doctors in the parish, Dr. E. A. Johnson came from Powhatan, Louisiana, was trained at Meharry Medical School in Tennessee, and established his practice in Natchitoches, where he was the sole provider of medical care for African Americans. His wife, Crittie Carroll Johnson, was the daughter of a funeral home director and attended college in Kansas City. She was the first African American female mortician in Natchitoches and one of the first in Louisiana.
Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Johnson were very active in the Civil Rights movement and spearheaded efforts to integrate the Louisiana Normal School (now Northwestern State University), persuading NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall to investigate the situation (Martin 2001:69). Dr. Johnson also served as the president of the Louisiana NAACP.
He was the person that caused us to want to exercise this right that we had. He stayed at the polls … and asked people to go to the polls and vote.
Dr. Johnson had his clinic, Mrs. Johnson had her mortuary, and they rented out space for a barbershop and shoeshine in their first place of business, pictured below.
The most famous doctor of all in this particular community for African Americans was Dr. Johnson. He was a physician in this community and under the conditions that Dr. Johnson worked in this community [it] was very dangerous. Because at that time when he had his private practice in this community, in Natchitoches parish, he was also the president of the NAACP.
The Johnsons moved from Amulet Street to Fifth Street in Jackson Square, where their home also served as a meeting place for Civil Rights organizers and supporters.
And you know, the home that Doc and his wife built on Fifth Street, his wife said that one reason they wanted to build a house with as many bedrooms was because there were no Black hotels, no hotels available for Blacks. And she called one of the bedrooms Thurgood Marshall bedroom, because that’s where he would sleep.
Johnson house and office: Michael Fontenot