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A NOD TO THE ANCESTORS
05/14/2026
By Käto Cooks
 Gerald W. Johnson Gerald W. Johnson, the national Champion of Diversity. Equity. Inclusion. Anti-racism, joined the ancestors on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, at 6:30 p.m., Louisiana time. Buoyed in the comfort of his spouse and business partner, Valerie Voorhies, along with others who loved him, Mr. Johnson passed softly, quietly, yet storming into our history. His legacy remains. Some missed the opportunity to know him, to be around him, to learn from him. Others of us are fortunate enough to have learned of him as he lived. Many missed the warmth of his smile and being, the strength that he carried and shared, those unspoken gifts captured in his grimaces, gestures, jokes, and manner of being. All of that remains: see the YouTube links at the bottom of this very short obsequy that I am honored to have been selected to pen. Also review the references and a few other articles that appeared over time in the Small Business Exchange newspapers, print and online editions. I was lucky enough to contribute to that oeuvre, too. For Mr. Johnson’s 100th birthday, I started my celebration with this: Celebrating the Centenarian: Gerald W. Johnson at 100 He steps smoothly into Mr. B’s, his favorite New Orleans retreat, to relax with his spouse and business partner, Valerie Voorhies. He is dressed casually, neatly, and comfortably. Adorning his head is a cap with the inscription: Took 100 years to look this good. And he smiles about it. “He” is Gerald Johnson, publisher and co-founder of the Small Business Exchange trade newspaper, online and print. “It” was his 100th birthday on January 28th. There were a lot of experiences leading up to this and several yet to come. For example, the City of New Orleans issued a proclamation to him on Sunday, January 26th. The California-based Construction Contractors Alliance announced a scholarship in his honor that covers five students. And something is stirring in San Francisco along the lines of another proclamation. His world percolates. But leading up to today… San Francisco went on to honor Mr. Johnson by making January 28th ‘his day,’ Gerald W. Johnson Day. We will recognize every year going forward in the same way. And the California-based Construction Contractors Alliance (https://www.ConstructionContractorsAlliance.org) increased the Gerald W. Johnson Scholarship to $2500 per student that now covers tuition for a National University Online course in Certified Administrative Assistant and a top-of-the-line Samsung tablet, but now includes first year recertification. The tuition may also be used for the Construction Manager In Training course, also offered through National University Online. These are for veterans who are Louisiana-affiliated and either: unhoused, criminal system impacted, formerly or presently in foster care, LGBTQIA, or in substance abuse recovery. I went on to write: In 1946, Gerald W. Johnson left service in the U.S. Navy and returned home to New Orleans. The homecoming was cut short when he was forced to leave town in a hurry after refusing to sit behind a sign in an area designated for “Coloreds” on a public bus. His family and friends wisely scooted him out of town. He ended up in San Francisco (The City) and almost immediately began building his legacy. Shortly after settling into The City, he organized a successful picket line to protest the absence of Black workers employed in retail shops in the Filmore District. He was just getting started. Next, he and some friends formed the Civic Progressive Union and took the protest to San Francisco’s theatre district. Subsequently, the local NAACP joined in with its support. Johnson then organized inside the Carpenters Union to get more Black business agents hired. That organizing continues in Southern California to this day. I struggle to emulate his commitment to service, a commitment that he exhibited throughout his lifetime. I remember checking in on Mr. Johnson earlier this year. He was in dialysis a few times a week but persevering. He was like that. I’m thinking that I have to share this with his host of friends and confreres in the San Francisco area who may be still unaware, along with those organizations that benefitted from his generosity. His legacy is just that: endless. Nabil Vo, who formats and lays out each edition of the Small Business Exchange newspapers, was solemn as we discussed the obsequy. Uncharacteristically, Nabil extended my deadline so that I could devote proper attention to this honor. Yet, I can’t seem to find the vocabulary, the syntax, the wordsmithing to do it as it should be done for Mr. Johnson. I closed the piece, Celebrating A Legend, with this: In 1969, according to research by writer Marie Sheehan Brown, “(t)he Martin Luther King-Marcus Garvey Square Cooperative Apartments were slated for the Filmore District – the first in San Francisco to be built by Black construction workers.” Johnson, however, decried the absence of Black-owned lumber companies involved in the effort – so he formed one. We call that Baadasss these days. By the mid-1970s, the United Minority Business and Professional Association, founded by Johnson and under his direction, negotiated an affirmative action program for the reconstruction of San Francisco’s public schools (aptly called ABLE: Asian-Black-Latino Enterprises). And there is the thriving Small Business Exchange (https://www.SBEInc.com), which boasts three online and print publications covering the nation from coast to coast. “SBE was founded with the explicit purpose of providing small (minority-, woman-, disadvantaged-, disabled-, disabled-veteran- and veteran- owned) businesses with access to information that enables them to successfully enter and compete in the U.S. economy. “The goal was to provide a communications network that would serve as an alternative to the “old-boy network.” As such, the SBE communication network is designed to cut across the many institutions that house information and to put small businesses in direct contact with the information they need to successfully compete for private and public-sector contracting opportunities.” — SBE, Inc. From time to time, we are fortunate enough to share space and time with those who are truly honorable, impactful, and worthy of emulation. I am fortunate in that way and I thank Valerie Voorhies for allowing me to maintain proximity to this greatness, manifested and groomed in their oneness. Remembering Gerald W. Johnson, a Louisiana fella. b.1925 – d.2026. https://youtu.be/jTfx96YYA9o?si=4DH64YbBezx_EeFN Part 2 https://youtu.be/Do3aSLNPB5E?si=-r7dC-i34hy2ogvZ Part 3 https://youtu.be/feuyZRIuEuA?si=na7jxKiOlfNFDFT1 Part 4 https://youtu.be/do8owp9L-jA?si=T2aFKMvwizVXCdhj Part 5 https://youtu.be/cygsLQQxxi0?si=3DD6coK8pIltwCkg References: The Postwar Struggle for Civil Rights, African-Americans in San Francisco, 1945–1975, by Paul T. Miller; From The Back of the Bus to Market Street, Suite 1000, by Marie Sheehan Brown; SBE Northeast, 1/28/2014. Celebrating a Legend: Gerald W. Johnson, Publisher of Small Business Exchange, by Käto Cooks; SBE, 2/1/2023. Käto Cooks, born in New Orleans in 1950, is a contributing writer with SBE since 2008 and a professional member of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Press Photographers Association. Parts of this article were lifted from other articles that he authored on Gerald Johnson’s birthdays going back to 2023. As an avocation, Cooks is a documentary filmmaker. His animated documentary, Hibakusha, is streaming on Amazon Prime presently. He was an associate producer of Season Two of the digital series Compersion, now steaming on Tubi. And Cooks is in pre-production, with dominatrix Regina Bolton’s Domme Side Productions, on a documentary film about Black dominatrices. Back To News |
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