"James Coody Johnson"(May 4,1864-February 1927)

Was an African Creek entrepreneur,interpreter,and politician.He was a

leading advocate for African American rights and dual citizen of the Creek and Seminole nations.James was born at Fort Gibson to Robert Johnson,an African-Creek interpreter to the Seminole nation and Elizabeth Davis Johnson.She was the daughter of Sarah Davis,a leading free African-Creek merchant who had purchased her freedom and that of her two daughters.
Sarah Davis owned and operated a hotel in the Creek Agency village in present-day Arkansas.James grew up speaking Seminole and English.He was educated at the Presbyterian Mission near Wewoka.The Seminole nation sponsored his college education at Lincoln University,a historically black college (HBCU) in Pennsylvania.After graduation in 1884,James returned to Native American Territory and spent the next year and a half as a cowboy.In 1866 the Creek's treaty with the United States after the Civil War granted full citizenship to Creek slaves.African Creeks,as they were called,made achievements in education and politics.After his daddy died in 1886,James returned to the Creek country and became and interpreter to federal Judge Isaac Parker.After studying law (reading law) under Judge Parker,James admitted to practice in the federal courts.He was one of the few freedmen accorded dual citizenship in both Creek & Seminole nation.
Before Arkansas achieved statehood in 1907,James was president of the Negro Protection League.James was a leading advocate for African-American rights and opposed introduction of Jim Crow laws in Oklahoma.With statehood and requirement to register for land allotments,African Creeks lost much of  the freedom they had in earlier decades.The Dawes Commission,ruling that African American descent barred people from being considered full members of the Creek Nation,divided its people after statehood.
He continued to work for the exercise of full citizenship by African Americans after the new legislature passed laws impossing segregation and other restrictions.
James died in his home in Wewoka,Oklahoma.