MPR’s Cathy Wurzer talks with historian Hy Berman about Nellie Stone Johnson, an influential leader in civil rights and labor movements, who passed away on April 2nd, 2002. Johnson was 96 years old.

Johnson, who was born in Lakeville, was the first black person elected to citywide office in Minneapolis. She was also the first woman in the nation to negotiate labor union contracts for equal pay for women. In 1944 she joined with Hubert H. Humphrey in forming the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Hy Berman is a history professor at the University of Minnesota.