Career
Her activism has been associated with the Black Lives Matter movement. Johnson had been noted in media outlets in Seattle and beyond for her engagement and disruption of public meetings before the Sanders incident. She organized a November, 2014 die-in at a Downtown Seattle shopping mall which shut down the mall on Black Friday 2014.
At a January 2015 city council meeting to discuss the use of body cameras by city police, she caused suspension of the meeting and said "I don"t need a home video of my oppression".
Widely reported as being black, she has one black and one white parent, and describes herself as an evangelical Christian. She has cited her faith as a motivator for her activism, saying "white supremacy is sin".
She graduated from Seattle Pacific University in 2013 with a degree in theology. After graduating, she went to work as a nanny.
Johnson has said that she once supported Sarah Palin as a national political candidate, and criticized "white liberal" people for being like Rachel Dolezal.
The disruption of Bernie Sanders" speech was described by Seattle political commentator Maria Tomchick in December, 2015 as being an important part of the "biggest news story of 2015", the expansion of the Black Lives Matter movement into the national political stage. Black Lives Matter Seattle chapter controversies The Seattle Bureau of Land Management chapter of Black Lives Matter has been criticized while under Johnson"s leadership for allowing anti-Semitic remarks at its rallies.