Vida Johnson facts for kids

Vida B. Johnson is an American lawyer and a professor at Georgetown University Law Center. She works as a criminal defense attorney, which means she helps people who are accused of crimes. Professor Johnson teaches law students and supervises other lawyers. She also writes a lot about criminal law.

Vida Johnson's Early Life and Education

Family History and Activism

Vida Johnson's grandfather, Dr. Reverend Allen Johnson, was an important leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi. This movement worked to end unfair treatment and segregation against African Americans. Because of his activism, his family's home was bombed in 1967 by members of the Ku Klux Klan. This group was known for its violence and hatred. The Johnson family was targeted because Dr. Allen Johnson was active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a group that fights for civil rights.

Growing Up and College Years

Vida Johnson grew up in San Diego, California. She went to college at the University of California at Berkeley. There, she studied American history.

Law School and Early Legal Work

After college, Vida Johnson went to law school at New York University School of Law. She wanted to become a civil rights lawyer, just like her grandfather. During her law school summers, she gained valuable experience. She worked at the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center, helping with large lawsuits for people on death row. She also interned at the public defender's office in San Francisco. In her final year of law school, she helped young people in trouble with the law through the Juvenile Defense Clinic at NYU Law.

After law school, Johnson became an E. Barrett Prettyman fellow at Georgetown Law. This fellowship allowed her to represent adults who could not afford a lawyer in the D.C. Superior Court. She also helped supervise law students in a clinic that focused on criminal justice.

Vida Johnson's Legal Career

Working as a Public Defender

After her fellowship, Vida Johnson worked for eight years as a public defender in Washington, D.C. A public defender is a lawyer who represents people who cannot afford to hire their own attorney. At the Public Defender Service, Johnson handled serious cases. She eventually became a supervisor for other lawyers. She also helped set guidelines for how people are sentenced in court.

Teaching at Georgetown Law

In 2009, Johnson started teaching at Georgetown University Law Center. She now works in two clinics: the Criminal Justice Clinic (CJC) and the Criminal Defense & Prisoner Advocacy Clinic (CDPAC). In these roles, she guides law students who are representing people accused of minor offenses in court.

Johnson also supervises two special programs for new law graduates: the E. Barrett Prettyman Fellowship and the Stuart Stiller Post-Graduate Fellowship Program. These programs train new lawyers in both the academic side of law and how to argue cases in court. The goal is to improve how people are defended in the justice system, especially those who cannot afford a lawyer. Johnson helps these new lawyers as they handle different types of cases.

Vida Johnson's Writings and Views

Writing About Criminal Law

Vida Johnson writes and teaches about criminal law. In one of her articles, she discussed how court decisions affect public defender offices. She explained how these decisions can help public defenders get more resources to do their important work.

Fighting for Justice

Johnson believes that her work defending people accused of crimes is important. She sees it as a way to fight against the unfair treatment of the Black community. She has appeared on TV shows like C-SPAN and MSNBC to talk about her work and views.

Johnson supports the Black Lives Matter movement, which advocates for the rights and fair treatment of Black people.

She also signed a letter to The Washington Post newspaper. This letter, written with other professors, criticized a news series that they felt unfairly showed a law designed to give young people a second chance.

Johnson also helped organize a letter signed by over 1,400 law professors. This letter urged the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary to reject the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions for the position of U.S. Attorney General. They believed he was not the right person for the job.