Wanda Johnson The Activist
Rev. Wanda Johnson is an amplified voice of empathy for individuals seeking justice, grieving, and healing from innocent lost lives by hands of law enforcement. Her beloved only son Oscar Grant III was murdered by an Oakland BART transit officer on January 1, 2009, which not only called attention to police brutality, but called inspired the formation of Black Lives Matter. Her experience around fighting for justice, the media, and trial strategy inform her community work. She has become key in the national racial justice reckoning, as she travels the world seeking justice for communities world-wide.
Wanda is CEO of The Oscar Grant Foundation, a 501(c)3, that helps at-risk youth, grieving families, students support and enrichment, education, and hunger. She works side by side with the mothers of Mike Brown, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, and countless other families that have become know as the Mothers of the Movement. Oakland’s demand for justice ignited a national movement demanding justice in all similar cases. Publicity around Wanda’s work caught the attention of Forest Whittaker. In 2013, he produced hit film, ‘Fruitvale Station’, a story that humanizes Oscar Grant’s last day of life.
Wanda hopes to also improve social inequities caused by negative stereotyping in law enforcement. She is an international motivational speaker, established gospel minister, and makes monthly appearances around the world impacting hearts in similar struggles. A dynamic, well-spoken activist, she has made guest appearances on nationally syndicated television programs, at respected universities, and in public forums.
Wanda Johnson the Motivational Speaker
Turning Pain into Purpose: My Story + Oscar’s Story
Apple, CBS, Stanford University, Rutgers University, Stockton University, Congressional Black Caucus, St. Mary’s College
Social Justice Seminar
St. Mary’s College, University of Texas El Paso, Laney College, Cal State Hayward, Rutgers University, Bowling Green State University
Black Lives Matter
Congressional Black Caucus, Apple, March on Washington 2020
Restorative Justice Seminar
Stanford University, Cal State Hayward, Bowling Green State University
Mental Health & Healing
Obama’s 21st Century Taskforce, Palma Ceia Baptist Church, Oscar Grant Foundation
Apple
CBS
March on Washington 2020
Stanford University
UC Berkeley
Rutgers University
Bowling Green State University
University of Texas El Paso
Congressional Black Caucus
Mills College
Standford University in Washington
Cal State East Bay
University of Southern California
IIP John Jay College New York
San Francisco State University
Laney College of Oakland
Chabot College of Hayward
Utumpka High Theatre Guild Alabama
President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper
Wanda Johnson the Author
Among the many other ventures and activities that Wanda Johnson participates in to erradicate injustice and equality, she has also both authored and co-authored books; “From Tragedy to Triumph” and “Her Unbreakable Spirit”.
Fruitvale Station
Oakland’s demand for justice ignited a national movement. Wanda’s organizing work caught the attention of Forest Whittaker, who produced the hit film directed by Ryan Coogler, ‘Fruitvale Station’, illustrating Oscar Grant’s last day of life, starring Michael B. Jordan and Octavia Spencer.
Press
2020 Commitment March Washington
New York Times: Thousands gathered for a protest aiming to recall the March on Washington and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. For the thousands who came to the Lincoln Memorial on Friday, the country’s problem was not too little police presence but far too much.
“We know, first of all, they’re going to be criminalized,” Johnson said of victims of police brutality. “They’re going to be dehumanized, and what we’ve got to do is we got to re-create their life in the media space so that the media doesn’t walk away thinking that they were just somebody that should have been killed, but that they were somebody’s child, somebody’s son, daughter, brother, father or sister.”
Until Something Is Done
PBS Short Doc: In the early hours of 2009, 22-year-old Oscar Grant was fatally shot by a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer at the Fruitvale station in Oakland, California. The shooting was captured on cellphone video and made headlines nationwide, leading to a national conversation about police brutality. As more police killings made the news, Grant’s mother, Wanda Johnson, decided to build community.
Johnson continues to reach out to the families of those who were killed by police. But in the 11 years since Grant’s death, she’s lost count. She tells them she is willing to do whatever she can to help. She hugs them. She prays for them. And she gives them a piece of advice: to focus on processing the death of their loved one before advocating for justice to be doled out.
10 Years Later
The Mercury News: Oscar Grant’s mother, Wanda Johnson, and his uncle Cephus “Bobby” X Johnson reflect on how the 22-year-old’s death changed society and the perception of police officers in the nation.
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