Georgia's early drag racers built their cars, maintained them and raced them.
Roosevelt Johnson, a racing pioneer who initially competed in black-only races, was good at everything. Folks sought his expertise, said Wallace "Georgia Fox" Jones, who broke the drag racing color barrier in a 1960s match against a white driver in Macon.
"We were carbon copies," he said. "He went to Mississippi and places like that and blazed the trail. He was just like me."
All four Johnson brothers raced, even against each other. Fletcher, Buddy, Charlie and Roosevelt were Ford men. Roosevelt "GrannyBoy" Johnson stands next to a 351-powered Pinto in a photo posted online at Dragster Insider. He also drove Mercury Comets and Falcons.
"We grew up in the sport," said a son, Ken Johnson of College Park.
Several years ago, the retired printer was diagnosed with a rare skin cancer. He died Jan. 1 from complications of the disease at VistaCare Hospice. He was 80. A funeral will be held noon Saturday at Mt. Carrie Baptist Church in Franklin, Ga. Willie A. Watkins Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Mr. Johnson attended Mt. Carrie Church School in the Heard County town of Franklin. He moved to Atlanta when he was 18, and became a printer for ICT Printers, his sole employer for 58 years.
For sport, racing was it. The dragster raced in black-only matches in places like the Fairburn drag strip and eventually competed against white drivers locally and out of state.
In the 1960s, Johnson hauled his car to Jackson, Miss., to become the first black to race at a town track. Insults flew, but the race was such a success the promoter asked him to stay and run another day.
"I heard those racial words and was called ‘boy' and everything else," he said in a 2004 interview. "But it didn't mean anything to me. I was a smart enough man to ignore them."
In 1961, he left the Atlanta Motor Speedway bleeding and beaten, the victim of a racial fight that erupted in the infield. A track promoter came to the aid of Grannyboy and his brothers; they were put in a patrol car and taken to the hospital.
Last October, Mr. Johnson was honored with a retirement shoot-out race at the LaGrange Troup County drag strip. He also was a 2005 honorary inductee into the Bryant Racing Hall of Fame.
In recent years, he'd turned the keys of a Camaro dragster over to a son-in-law, but still saw matches in LaGrange, Eatonton and Phenix City, Ala. He still tinkered, though, and had two engines at his Mableton home.
"Everybody wanted to use one of his engines 'cause they knew he knew what stuff to put in them," his son said.
Additional survivors include his wife of 58 years, Sarah Jeanette Johnson of Mableton; two other sons, Steve Johnson of East Point and Ramon Johnson of Mableton; two daughters, Tereion Sims of Austell and Pam Johnson of Atlanta; a brother, Joe Johnson of Atlanta; three sisters, Betty Strong of Roanoke, Ala.; Jearlene Strickland of Franklin and Mollie Ann Beasley of Bowden; 14 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
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