Elissa Slotkin: “Today, I rise to pay tribute to a man who should have been hailed as a hero, but for too long his story was lost in…”

“Today, I rise to pay tribute to a man who should have been hailed as a hero, but for too long his story was lost in history. Alexander Johnson was a Black Civil War veteran who lived and worked in Owosso, Michigan, in the late 1800s. When a group of White residents chased most Black folks out of town, Johnson and two others refused to go. Born in Tennessee in 1833, Johnson fled slavery and made his way to Michigan before enlisting in a Union regiment of African Americans in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to fight in the Civil War, then moving to Canada at the war's end, and later returning to Michigan to settle in Owosso with his wife. No one knows for sure why he chose Owosso. Some historians believe Johnson's wife may have had family nearby. Others surmise he might have had connections to a home in Owosso rumored to be a part of the Underground Railroad, and still others say that at the time, the growing community was a place where people of all races moved to explore economic opportunity. Whatever the reason, Owosso is where Alexander Johnson chose to put down his roots, opening up a downtown barbershop and was, by all accounts, a well-liked businessman and respected member of the community. Unfortunately, the good times did not last long as racial tensions grew and the Ku Klux Klan became active in the county. The tensions culminated in 1871 when 40 White vigilantes gathered together and attempted to drive the Black residents out of town.…”