Hundreds pay tribute at funeral for Jet Executive Editor Robert E. Johnson

It was indeed a celebration of life when hundreds recently gathered at Rockefeller Chapel in Chicago to pay tribute to the life of JET Associate Publisher and Executive Editor Robert E. Johnson in words, music and spirit.

The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, president and founder of Operation Push, eulogized the legendary journalist. Johnson's son, Robert E. Johnson III; grandson, Cole Johnson-Vinion, and nephew, Robert E. Johnson, gave family remembrances, and fifteen of Johnson's dearest friends--from the fields of communication, law, education, religion, labor and entertainment--put into words the essence of the man, remembering him not only as a great communicator, but also as a fighter, humanitarian and loyal friend.

Invoking the spirit of celebration, Robert III said, "This time should not be a mournful time, but rather a celebration for a very great man."

"We come together today not to mourn death but celebrate life," echoed nephew Robert, and grandson Cole celebrated Johnson as "Mr. Grandfather, the greatest grandfather you could ever have."

Rev. Jackson led the gathering in a standing ovation to the life of the acclaimed journalist who died of cancer on Dec. 27, 1995.

In his eulogy to Johnson, Rev. Jackson took his text from Acts 13: 36 which speaks to the life and death of King David: "For when David had served God's purpose in his own generation he fell asleep."

He praised Johnson for serving as a "counter-cultural Black journalist-not a journalist who happened to be Black.

"Authentic Black journalists have a prevailing cultural frame of reference," he explained, and it was from that frame of reference that Bob Johnson filled JET,S pages with the early struggles of the Civil Rights Movement-the Emmett Till lynching, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott-which the White media chose to ignore.

"The prevailing press saw the Emmett Till murder as a Mississippi lynching which America had become too accustomed. Bob Johnson saw the Emmett Till lynching as a national disgrace. The Emmett Till story in Jet preceded the 1954 Supreme Court Decision and the 1955 boycott. It had an effect on both. Bob Johnson, a Benjamin E. Mays student and scholar, was taught by Dr. Mays that racism is evil. Bob Johnson was convinced that racism could not be sanitized; it had to be challenged and eliminated.

"He never adjusted to the prevailing journalism ethic as authentic. He never considered leaving Jet in the quest for more money, but less meaning. Being authentic was the highest good for him.

"He used his skills as a writer to become a rebel with a cause," Jackson said. "He marched and wrote to the beat of a different drummer. Bob kept telling our story. That's why Michael Jackson, James Brown, or Bill Cosby or Hank Aaron or Fannie Lou Hamer or Harold Washington could trust him because Bob never pretended to be objective, but to be fair and that's enough. He embraced Jet with a source of pride he would never let go.

"After allowing him to use his pen as a liberator, God let Johnson make a deal. He died under his own terms in the bosom of his God, in the arms of his wife, in the house of his children, in his own bedroom where he knelt and prayed before he went to sleep at night. So now at the end of life's day he sleeps with honor, a regal royal servant whose life helped to lift a race and a nation."

Jet Publisher John H. Johnson, in his tribute to Bob Johnson's life and the 42 years they shared at Johnson Publishing Company, was reminded of the song It's Hard To Say Goodbye, My Love from the Broadway musical DreamGirls: "Last night I was listening to a song that was done during DreamGirls which was a story about the life of the Supremes and they were singing their last song together and what they really said is that they had been together so long they never thought it would end. And that's the way I feel about Bob Johnson. We were together 42 years; that's a lifetime really. I saw him or talked to him almost every day for 42 years. I never thought it would end. It just didn,t occur to me that it would end. Bob was so reliable, so responsible, so courageous. Bob Johnson covered the civil rights marches in Alabama and Mississippi and all the dangerous places. We always gave an optin

not to go, but he always went. And he always, always came back with the story. Bob would never miss, he was reliable and even when he wrote things that were not entirely pleasing to people, he wrote it with such compassion, with such caring that I don't know anyone who was ever really mad at Bob Johnson about what he wrote. He had that ability that no matter what came up Bob would say, 'We can't say that unless we get their side of the story, and he would call and he would end up printing their side of the story more than he did the original story. Bob was the kind of man who wanted to be fair with people. He wanted to give dignity to people. And I cannot think of him as being gone really."

Recalling the words of the late Gen. Douglas MacArthur who said, "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away," Publisher Johnson said, "Bob was an old soldier and he fought many battles and he won them all except this last one when the superior being called his name.