REP. HANK JOHNSON (D-GA)
Henry Calvin Johnson Jr. (born October 2, 1954) is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Georgia’s 4th congressional district since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district is based in DeKalb County, a largely suburban county east of Atlanta. It also includes portions of Gwinnett, Newton, and all of Rockdale counties; the district’s boundaries have been redrawn, in accordance with the results of the 2010 United States Census, since Congressman Johnson’s initial election victory in 2006. He is one of only three Buddhists, along with Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono and former Hawaii Representative Colleen Hanabusa, to have ever served in the United States Congress.
Johnson grew up in Washington, D.C. His father worked for the Bureau of Prisons and was the director of classifications and paroles. Up to that time, he was the highest ranking African-American in the bureau.
Johnson received his B.A. degree from Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University) in 1976, is a member of Omega Psi Phi Kappa Alpha Alpha Chapter, Decatur, Georgia, and his J.D. degree from Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston in 1979; he practiced law in Decatur, Georgia, for more than 25 years.
From 1989 to 2001, Johnson served as an associate judge of the DeKalb County magistrate’s court. He was elected to the DeKalb County Commission in 2000 and served from 2001 to 2006.
