Joseph Lowery Johnson (February 14, 1874 – July 18, 1945) was a physician and an early African-American diplomat, serving as the United States Ambassador to Liberia from 1918 to 1922.
[6] Johnson was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to the position of United States Ambassador to Liberia on August 27, 1918.
[7] Since the Civil War, United States presidents had frequently appointed African Americans as ambassadors to Liberia and Haiti.
Wilson, in his efforts to resegregate the federal government, ended that tradition with Haiti but maintained it with Liberia, making Johnson one of his very few Black high-ranking appointees.
In 1928, he was elected president of the Al Smith League of Colored Voters of Ohio, which promoted the Democratic nominee.