Hannibal B. Johnson is a graduate of Harvard Law School. He did his undergraduate work at The University of Arkansas, where he completed a double major in economics and sociology. Johnson is an attorney, author, and independent consultant specializing in diversity & inclusion/cultural competence issues and nonprofit governance. Johnson has also served as an adjunct professor at The University of Tulsa College of Law (legal writing; legal ethics), Oklahoma State University (leadership and group dynamics; business law [MBA Program]), and the University of Oklahoma (ethics; cultural diversity; race & reason; The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot; nonprofit leadership & management).
Johnson is past president of Leadership Tulsa, past president of the Metropolitan Tulsa Urban League and past president of the Northeast Oklahoma Black Lawyers Association. He served as Chairman of the board of directors of The Community Leadership Association, an international leadership organization, during 2001 – 2002, and is a founding director of the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. He currently serves on the Oklahoma Advisory Committee for the United States Commission on Civil Rights, and as Immediate Past Chairman of the board of directors of the Oklahoma Department of Libraries. Johnson directed Anytown, Oklahoma, a statewide human relations camp for teens, for more than a decade. He has served on the board of Planned Parenthood of Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma and on the Advisory Board of the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference of the Southwest. Johnson is chairman of board of directors of The Rotary Club of Tulsa 2015 – 2016 and chairs the Club’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee. He serves on the Institutional Review Board for Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, on the Tulsa Public Schools Fine Arts Advisory Board and is a past chair of the board of directors of the Foundation for Tulsa Schools. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Oklahoma Humanities Council. He served on the Programs Committee for the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation and organized the Center’s annual symposium for several years. In 2004, Mr. Johnson graduated with the inaugural class of the national “Connecting Community Fellowship Program” based in Richmond, Virginia.
Johnson’s books include: Images of America: Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District; Black Wall Street–From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District; Up From the Ashes—A Story About Community; Acres of Aspiration—The All-Black Towns in Oklahoma; Mama Used To Say—Wit & Wisdom From The Heart & Soul; No Place Like Home—A Story About an All-Black, All-American Town; IncogNegro—Poetic Reflections on Race & Diversity in America; and Apartheid in Indian Country?: Seeing Red Over Black Disenfranchisement. Johnson’s play, Big Mama Speaks—A Tulsa Race Riot Survivor’s Story, has been performed at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, Philbrook Museum of Art, and was selected for the 2011 National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Johnson is a contributing writer to the Encyclopedia of African American History (New York, New York: Facts on File, Inc. 2010), penning two articles: Langston, Oklahoma and the Birth of the All-Black Town Movement; and Edward Preston McCabe—The Father of the All-Black Town Movement).
Johnson’s honors include: the 2016 Whitney M. Young, Jr., Service Award from the Boy Scouts of America; the 2015 National Philanthropy Day Award for Diversity and Inclusion from the Association of Fundraising Professionals; the 2013 “The Inclusives” diversity award from Tulsa’s Young Professionals; the 2012 “Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher Diversity Award” from the Oklahoma Bar Association; the “Don Newby/Ben Hill” award from Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry; the “Keeping The Dream Alive” award from the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration Society; the “Outstanding Service to the Public Award” from the Oklahoma Bar Association; the “Ten Outstanding Young Tulsans” award from the Tulsa Jaycees; the “Distinguished Leadership Award” from the National Association for Community Leadership; the 2005 “Ralph Ellison Literary Award” from the Black Liberated Arts Center; the 2006 Oklahoma Human Rights Award from the Oklahoma Human Rights Commission; induction into the 100 Black Men of Tulsa, Inc. “Hall of Honor” in 2007; and the “Goodwill Appreciation Award” from the Islamic Society of Tulsa in 2008.