Johnnie Colemon was an influential minister and teacher in the New Thought movement.
12 Facts About Johnnie Colemon
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Johnnie Colemon was born to John and Lula Haley in Centerville, Alabama, on February 18,1920 but her family moved to Columbus, Mississippi, at an early age, and she identified more with that location as her birthplace, leading others to misidentify Columbus, Mississippi as her place of origin.
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Johnnie Colemon attended Union Academy High School and graduated from Wiley College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1943.
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Johnnie Colemon then taught at schools in Mississippi and Chicago.
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Johnnie Colemon was the third Black student ordained as a Unity Minister in 1956.
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For two years, Johnnie Colemon commuted 15 miles each way to the YWCA in Kansas City before the campus was desegregated.
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Johnnie Colemon founded Christ Unity Temple, later Christ Universal Temple, a Chicago-based megachurch.
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Christ Universal Temple under Johnnie Colemon became the largest and one of the most influential churches in Chicago.
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Johnnie Colemon served as Director of the Chicago Port Authority and Commissioner of the Chicago Transit Authority Oversight Committee, recognition as one of Chicago's Living Legends by the Institute for African American Youth Development.
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Johnnie Colemon was honored by DuSable Museum as an African American History Maker.
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Johnnie Colemon died at Mercy Hospital in Chicago on December 23,2014, at the age of 94.
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Johnnie Colemon is interred in Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago.