Golden E. Johnson

Golden Elizabeth Johnson (1944–25 April 2010) was an American Democratic Party politician and jurist. She was the first African American woman to serve as a Newark, New Jersey Municipal Court Judge.

Life

G. Elizabeth Johnson was born to Lucy Johnson and LeRoy Johnson. She graduated in 1961 from East Side High School in 1961, and received a B.S. degree in Microbiology from Douglas College-Rutgers University in 1964. She worked as a researcher and graduated Rutgers University Law School in 1971. She worked for the Hoffmann-La Roche pharmaceutical company before her appointment to the bench. She was appointed to the bench by Mayor Kenneth A. Gibson in 1974.

Johnson resigned from the bench in 1980 to challenge House Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter W. Rodino in the Democratic primary for the seat of New Jersey's District 10 in the US House of Representatives. Rodino won with 62% of the vote, followed by former Essex County Freeholder Donald M. Payne with 23%. Johnson finished third with 12%, followed by former Essex County Freeholder Russell E. Fox with 3%.

Johnson worked on discrimination cases as Director of the Community Legal Action Workshop, a program of the American Civil Liberties Union. She served as Municipal Court Judge in Montclair, New Jersey, and as an Assistant Essex County Prosecutor from 1995 until her death in 2010.