His mother, Bertha Ellen Seagers, was a school principal and teacher, and his father, Orange Maull Johnson, was a realtor.
[citation needed] Deciding to focus on a career in entertainment, Johnson left the copyright office and moved to Los Angeles in 1971.
[4] While in this role for a variety of television shows, Johnson caught the attention of Stephen J. Cannell and Meta Rosenberg.
[6] Along with Robert Hooks, Brock Peters, and Denise Nicholas, Johnson was a founding member of The Media Forum[7] and he served as a former vice president.
He was a vice president of Communications Bridge, a Los Angeles training program for minority students in the fields of Film and Television Production.
Johnson is also a co-author (along with George H. Hill and Lorraine Raglin) of the book, Black Women in Television: An Illustrated History and Bibliography, published in 1990.