Columbia, Tennessee Native, Lyman T. Johnson, was born in 1906, a time when segregation was alive and active. His father was a college graduate who was also a principal of a black school. Johnson did know that much about segregation up until one day his father had took him to a local theatre and his father intructed Johnson not to sit in the “crows nest” which was a reserved section for blacks at a local theatre. Johnson's father is where he get his ambitious to fight for rights among African Americans.

 

Lyman T. Johnson was well educated, earning his bachelor’s degree from Virgina Union University in 1930 and earning his master’s from the University of Michigan in 1931. Johnson had later became a teacher at Central High School in Louisville, Ky, where Johnson had taught math, history, and economics. He was also the assistant pricipal at Parkland Junior High School for four years.