( Dear Evanston)  Bennett J. Johnson, 89, is a walking encyclopedia of the Chicago (and national) civil rights movement, and the sports, music and literary scenes of his earlier days. Talking to him is like listening to a multi-chapter audio book about race, anger, activism, family, and history, with a twist of dry humor--read by the author.  Bennett is the middle child and only son of Kathryn Burnice Hill Johnson Casimere Samples and Bennett Jones Johnson. In 1931, recently separated, his mother brought two-year-old Bennett and his two sisters from Chicago to Evanston, where they lived with Bennett’s great-aunt and five boy cousins in Evanston’s Black fifth ward.  From Kindergarten to second grade, Bennett and his siblings attended Foster School, the city’s only Black school. The building, at 2010 Dewey Ave., is now home to Family Focus Evanston and a variety of nonprofit organizations.  When Bennett was seven, his parents reconciled. His father got a job working on the property of a wealthy businessman named George Bridges. The family moved from Dodge Street to the coach house of the Bridges’ mansion, which was located east of Sheridan Road on Milburn Street, right on the lake, and the Johnson children had to start a new school.  https://www.dearevanston.org/post/2020/01/29/an-evanstonian-you-should-know-bennett-johnson  Civil rights activist Bennett Johnson reflects on the life of service https://dailynorthwestern.com/2016/02/18/city/civil-rights-activist-bennett-johnson-reflects-on-life-of-service/