Politics | Page 83

Nellie Stone Johnson (far right) with NAACP leaders, 1954.

Nellie Stone Johnson with NAACP leaders

Nellie Stone Johnson (far right) with NAACP leaders, including Anthony Cassius (far left); publisher Milton G. Williams (third from left); and Howard Bennett, later appointed Minnesota’s first black judge (second from right), 1954.

Johnson, Nellie Stone (1905–2002)

Nellie Stone Johnson was an African American union and civil rights leader whose career spanned the class-conscious politics of the 1930s and the liberal reforms of the Minnesota DFL Party. She believed unions and education were paths to economic security for African Americans, including women. Her self-reliant personality and pragmatic politics sustained her long and active life.

Farmer-Labor Party rally flyer

Flyer advertising a Farmer-Labor Party rally held at Mesaba Park on July 5, 1936. Flyer is from the John Bernard papers, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

Congressman John T. Bernard at Mesaba Co-op Park

Congressman John T. Bernard at Mesaba Co-op Park, 1938. Image used with the permission of the Iron Range Research Center, Chisholm.

John T. Bernard and Marie Bernard

John T. Bernard and his daughter, Marie, c.1930s.

John T. Bernard

John T. Bernard, c.1938. Photograph is from the John Bernard papers, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

Bernard, John Toussaint (1893–1983)

Minnesota Congressman John T. Bernard fought throughout his life for working people against strong opposition. His outspoken and uncompromising views led him, on his second day in office, to cast the single “no” vote in Congress against the Spanish arms embargo. Bernard’s vote proved farsighted as the Spanish Civil War became, in many ways, a “dress rehearsal” for World War II.