Dr. Robert LeWayne Johnson is a Deputy Assistant Program Manager Logistics at the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD). He is also a retired military officer, Bronze Star recipient, combat veteran, recipient of the Lloyd Burton, Jr. Service Award and listed in the Library of Congress as 2022-2023 Who’s Who in America. He is successful despite having experienced some of the darker chapters of American history.

From his humble beginnings, Johnson saw education as the great equalizer and received multiple degrees. He used skills gained from his academic and military experience to make a positive impact on Florida’s homeless population. The U.S. Congressional Records (116 Edition) recognized him as a Distinguished Leader of Central Florida in 2020. He is also works to prevent homelessness for Florida veterans.  

Early years

“My motto is where one is, is not always where must be,” Johnson said. He was born on a cotton plantation in Leland, Mississippi in 1956, during the Jim Crow south. In the Jim Crow era, discriminatory laws against Black people promoted segregation and inequality. Black people were not allowed to vote or have access to many educational and financial opportunities, thus restricting them to a cycle of poverty and trauma. After the Reconstruction era ended, many freed slaves stayed in the south working on plantations while borrowing tools from plantation owners on credit.  

Johnson’s family of nine picked cotton, planted soybeans and raised livestock until the owner sold the plantation. At age 11, his parents separated. His father continued sharecropping while his mother, grandmother, and seven siblings moved in with their uncle, Robert Smith, Jr., Johnson’s uncle helped his family break the cycle that the debt of sharecropping promulgated. His uncle already had his wife, elderly friend, and eight children with him but found room in his heart and home for Johnson’s family in their shotgun house. The shotgun house was a two-bedroom home that was so small a person could take a shotgun and shoot a bullet straight through the house.  

After living with his uncle for a year, Johnson’s family moved into their own shotgun house with money his mom saved as a waitress. “Nobody in my family had ever gone to college,” Doctor Johnson said, “in fact my family’s philosophy was you finish high school, get a job, make money, and pay your bills...college was not on the agenda.” However, his role model did value education. His grandma, Elnora Tillman-Smith, was a certified midwife who pursued an RN license but was denied access to the program because of her race. She continued delivering babies while doing multiple jobs to provide for their family. She inspired Johnson to push through and work hard.  

Education 

Music got Johnson off the cotton field. In the 10th grade, he saved money from picking cotton to make a down payment on a trombone. After finishing the payment, he purchased and practiced the trombone for college auditions. At first, he was skeptical about pursuing college because racism taught him, he wasn’t smart enough to excel academically, but the faith of his role models convinced him to audition. He was so good playing that Johnson earned admission to Lane College, Jackson, Tennessee where he remained for two years.  

Determined to expand his knowledge, Johnson applied and received an academic scholarship to Aurora University in Aurora, Illinois. The Black student population was less than 1% at the time. While attending Aurora University, he participated in their international exchange program where he traveled all over Europe for six months then returned for his degree. “That was the first graduation my mom had ever attended. I was the first in my family to finish college and all my siblings, cousins, aunt were in the audience for my graduation. It was the proudest moment of my life,” Johnson said. 

His uncle did not attend because he was assassinated by the Ku Klux Klan at age 33 in 1968.  “He would have been proud, he would have,” Johnson said. “He was like a father figure to all of us.” 

The assassination of Johnson’s Uncle drove him to pursue a degree in law. His uncle was beaten, shot, then tied to a tractor battery and pushed into a lake in Mississippi. His uncle’s wife was also murdered and raped. Despite the gruesome assault and about 32 bullet wounds, the coroner ruled the cause of death as drowning. Johnson’s uncle was assassinated in a similar style to Emmett Till. Like Emmett Till, Johnson’s uncle, and other Black people living in the Jim Crow era, their crimes were not fully investigated. The coroner later confessed to Johnson’s mom that her brother was murdered. “My mom said ‘well, why did you say it was a drowning?’ the corner replied, ‘I’m Black, I didn’t have a choice...the people who did it told me that if I wanted to keep my business, if I wanted to keep my family, if I didn't want to be next, I needed to keep my mouth closed.’ As a result, nobody pressed charges because nobody knew the law.  That was when I told my family I would be a lawyer and that this will never happen to us again,” Johnson said.   

In 2003, Johnson became an attorney after receiving his JURIS doctorate (JD) from the Barry University School of Law.  He then received a Master of Law (LLM) in international taxation in 2006.  After that, Johnson received his PhD in public policy and administration in 2012 from Walden University. Although some people like his dad thought college was unnecessary, “I believe that where one is, is not always where one must be and just because I was born and raised on a plantation in Mississippi didn't mean that I had to stay there,” Johnson said, “I didn't have to stay in that frame of mind that education never got anybody anything, I had to get off of that plantation and my way of getting off of it was through education.” 

Military Service

Around 1983, after finishing college, Johnson enlisted in the Air Force as a Navigational System Technician for four years. He then joined the Army and studied to be a legal specialist. During his Army service he worked as a Court Reporter and was stationed in Saudi Arabia as the Principial Court Reporter for legal hearings of Iraqi prisoners of war. Then Johnson was commissioned as a Warrant Officer, Technical Officer, and retired as senior Chief Warrant Officer, Legal Administrative Officer.  

Of course, there were obstacles in Johnson’s path. Colleagues were intimidated by his rank and education especially considering his background. He was asked not to use his PhD title for fear of upsetting other teammates, but refused to because he earned his PhD. “It has not been a smooth journey being an educated black man in the south...I've been discriminated against in the job market ... Individuals are intimidated by what I have, who I am, and the way I present myself and don't want to see me in certain positions,” Johnson said.  

A pivotal moment for Johnson happened in 1991. He was a first responder to a missile attack in Saudi Arabia that ambushed and killed 28 American Soldiers. “After that I came home and realized soldiers coming back from Saudi Arabia...They didn't have a place to stay, didn't have a job to go to. Their families were hungry. They were killing themselves,” Johnson said, “we had almost 800,000 veterans that were homeless in the U.S. at that time”  

Volunteer service 

As of 2020, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, stated Florida has about 27,487 people experiencing homelessness on any given day. The Florida Department of Veterans Affairs stated there are about 2,472 homeless veterans in Florida on any given day. These statistics are lower now thanks to the efforts of volunteer organizations.

As the leader of a homeless veterans coalition, Johnson finds and helps homeless veterans secure housing by helping them receive Veteran Affairs (VA) HUD vouchers and other financial aid then moving them into temporary shelters before relocating them to permanent housing.  The HUD VA vouchers provide funds for a certain number of months so homeless veterans can make rent payments for their new homes.  

Johnson serves as a board member for an organization developing a community of tiny homes for the homeless. Described the community as tiny, containerized smart homes available for homeless people and veterans to rent or buy. He explained that homeless veterans are currently sleeping at shelters, in cars, or even in the woods with little protection.   

“When we joined the military, we swore to never leave a veteran service member behind. That means on the battlefield or when they come home. We swore we would never leave a veteran service member behind, and yet Florida has the second largest homeless veteran population in the country. We have failed our ethos of ‘no man left behind’ and so my mission is to prevent homelessness in Florida,” Johnson said.  

After more than 38 years of combined military and federal service, Johnson has launched initiatives to aid homeless veterans. He realized his purpose after seeing a man with a military cap begging for money. He thought about how his uncle reached out and helped his family when they had nowhere to go and wanted to be that helpful resource for other veterans. Thanks to the work of Johnson, homeless veterans can monumentally change their lives because “where one is, is not always where one must be.”