12-02-2025
Beloved Community remembers co-founder and Greensboro community activist Reverend Dr. Nelson Johnson
GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — A local nonprofit is mourning the loss of one of its founders Reverend Dr. Nelson Johnson.
He was a Greensboro community leader and was also known as a civil rights activist who led the march targeted in the Greensboro Massacre.
The Beloved Community Center wants Johnson remembered for his impact and the decades he spent fighting for justice and equality.
'I think everyone that's been touched by Reverend Johnson is in pain. I think we all recognize the tremendous loss to the community. He was like a beacon of light and hope,' Beloved Community Center Executive Director Brigette Rasberry said.
Johnson dedicated his life to fighting for social and economic justice, community empowerment and racial reconciliation.
He was the founding pastor of Faith Community Church and co-founder of the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro.
'He was a force … One of the things that I like most about him is his humility and his … genuine care and concern for other people,' Raspberry said.
In his pursuit of equality, he played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement.
He led a 1979 labor and civil rights march that ended in tragedy. Johnson and several others in the Workers Viewpoint Organization faced the Ku Klux Klan and members of the American Nazi Party.
That event is now known as the Greensboro Massacre.
'I remember when I first came here, and he was saying to me … 'I almost don't want to tell people about the Greensboro Massacre and the part that I played in that,'' Rasberry said. 'He said, 'Because people then see me as not human … I'm just the ordinary person. Anybody can at any time step up and do something that's courageous and bold.''
Johnson's vision extended far beyond Greensboro. Last year, the nonprofit made his dream of a statewide march for unity and justice a reality.
'We started … Sept. 20 … from Cullowhee in western North Carolina to Wilmington over a ten-day period, and we stopped each day in a different community and had rallies and marches to really lift up people,' Rasberry said.
His legacy will live on through the work being done by the Beloved Community Center and through the countless lives he touched.
'Being willing to roll up your sleeves and do the work .. That's what he did each and every day until the very end … If he were here now, he would still be saying … 'We need to reach out,'' Rasberry said.
Johnson died at the age of 81 years old.
The Beloved Community Center has established the Nelson N. Johnson Legacy Fund in his name.
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