Early into his childhood, the family moved to Wilmington, Delaware; by that time his father worked at the docks as a shipbuilder and as the athletic director at the Negro Settlement House.

[5] In 1917, he stopped attending Howard High School to work on shipyards in New Jersey and play weekend games on baseball teams that were drawn from the community, including the Rosalies and the Chester Stars.

By 1921, with the Daisies in need of an infielder, Johnson signed a professional baseball contract worth $135 a month with Ed Bolden, who owned the Hilldale ball club.

Once the regular season began, Johnson struggled at the plate, finishing his rookie year with a .188 batting average (BA), yet he played every day and was mentored by Francis in the offseason in order to make the transition to third base.

[3] The favored Hilldale club owed its success in the series—which they won five-to-one—to a stronger line-up consisting of seven starters finishing the regular season batting over .300 and pitching staff led by Nip Winters.

[15] After the season, Johnson started playing winter ball in Cuba and was moved to the clean-up spot in the line-up for the remainder of his stint with Hilldale.

During the playoffs, the Daisies played four exhibition games against a team composed of white major leaguers, including Lefty Grove, Heinie Manush, and Jimmy Dykes.

[16] The onset of the Great Depression in the United States drastically affected attendance at Negro league baseball games, forcing the Daisies to temporarily fold before the 1930 season.

[3][17] During the season, Johnson directed his attention to Crawford Colored Giants catcher Josh Gibson who was mentioned in several newspapers for his ability to hit long home runs.

By 1932, Greenlee signed five future hall of famers: Johnson, Cool Papa Bell, Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, and Oscar Charleston, the player manager.

[21] In Game Seven, with the Crawfords trailing 7–4 and down to their final out, Johnson hit an infield single to load the bases and kept Pittsburgh's pennant hopes alive.

[3] Although the Crawfords finished the second half of 1936 in first place and Johnson showed little signs of slowing down with age, Greenlee shockingly traded him and Gibson to the Homestead Grays in exchange for Pepper Bassett and Henry Spearman, both of whom were considered marginal players at best.

[23] Before the Athletics relocated to Kansas in 1954, the club assigned Johnson as an assistant coach tasked with instructing black players Bob Trice and Vic Power during spring training.

[23] Due to the brief nature of Johnson's assignment, Buck O'Neil is generally credited with being the first African-American to coach in Major League Baseball (MLB).

[24] Johnson spent time scouting with the Atlanta Braves, Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies, and Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1950s and 1960s.

[25] Johnson is recognized as the best third baseman of the Negro leagues; Arthur Ashe in his book A Hard Road to Glory termed his play as "the standard by which other third-basemen were measured".

[3][26] Former teammates, including Ted Page and Johnson's mentor John Henry “Pop” Lloyd, praised his composure under pressure, both on the field and at the plate.