JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Late photographer David Johnson’s journey took him from Jacksonville to the Navy, ultimately leading him to capture the vibrant Black culture in San Francisco’s historic Fillmore District and document key moments in the Civil Rights Movement through his photography.

This is his story.

Early Life

Born in 1926 in a segregated Jacksonville, Johnson was raised by his cousin, Alice Johnson, from whom he took his last name. He was also the only one in the household who could read or write.

He got his first camera when he was 12 years old by selling magazine subscriptions. With no classical training, he started taking pictures of his friends and other happenings in his neighborhood.

Johnson was drafted into the Navy right after he graduated from Stanton High School. He was stationed at a base in San Francisco where he fell in love with the city.

He was then sent to the Philippines for the remainder of World War II then was discharged and returned home to Jacksonville so he could pursue a photography career.

“I knew based on some previous picture-taking on my part, little amateur, that’s what I wanted to do,” Johnson said in an interview with the Bancroft Library. “How is going to be the question.”

Journey back to the Fillmore District

In 1946, Johnson learned that Ansel Adams started a photography program at what’s now called the San Francisco Art Institute, and he applied.

“I wrote him a telegram and said, ‘Dear Mr. Adams I’m interested in studying photography…by the way, I’m a negro,’ It’s the South and many schools would not accept Black students,” Johnson said.

He thought that being upfront about being Black would intrigue Adams.

The class was full, but another student dropped the course, paving the way for Johnson to be accepted.

He then hopped on a train from Jacksonville to San Francisco and established a studio in the Fillmore District. He captured everyday life like churches, barbershops, children playing, jazz clubs, and more.

In an interview with the Jacksonville Times-Union, Johnson said the Fillmore reminded him of the LaVilla neighborhood near his home.

A legacy built through photography

In 1963, before the Civil Rights Act, the NAACP had a demonstration in front of San Francisco’s City Hall building with a statue of Abraham Lincoln in front of it. Johnson found a boy sitting in the lap of Lincoln’s statue while holding an American flag.

“The little boy in the lap of Lincoln, ‘how am I going to get this photograph?’” Johnson asked. “There are other people there…When these people become less important and it doesn’t distract from that, and the boy is looking this way and these people you don’t even know they’re there. They become part of the image without [becoming a distraction].”

Johnson was also a direct participant in the movement. He helped organize the first Black Caucus at the University of California, San Francisco in 1968, one month after Martin Luther King’s assassination. The group challenged the administration on its discriminatory policies and organized strikes.

He was also part of the group that successfully sued the San Francisco Unified School District to desegregate in 1971.

By 1980, Johnson had stopped professionally taking photos as the Fillmore District changed because of redevelopment. His work, about 5,000 images, was exhibited in museums, put in a book called “Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Jazz Era,” and a PBS documentary called “The Fillmore.” His wife also wrote a book about him called, “A Dream Begun So Long Ago: The Story of David Johnson, Ansel Adams’ First African American Student.”

He then earned his Master’s in Social Work to help foster families in San Francisco.

The City of Jacksonville made a proclamation on June 4, 2019, to honor the life and work of Johnson. Two weeks later, Johnson and his wife returned to Jacksonville for a ceremony at the Ritz Theatre and LaVilla Museum.

The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) said Johnson is one of the most important photographers who documented the ups and downs of the formative decades of San Francisco’s history. His work resonates today as the country continues to grapple with systemic oppression and racial injustice.

“It really is an amazing story of someone who had the will, the vision, the perseverance to transform his life completely under what were really constrained circumstances,” Jack von Euw, Senior Curator at the Bancroft Library said.

In March 2024, he died at 97 in his San Francisco home from advanced dementia and pneumonia, but he leaves behind a legacy that will last generations.

Click here to see more of Johnson’s work archived in the UC Berkley Bancroft Library.