Sterling Johnson was born to Lucius and Helen Johnson in Chicago, Illinois in July 1950. He attended the public schools on the South and West sides of the city. His mother valued education, and the family often travelled to Canada. The family drove from Chicago to Mexico City in 1964 and in 1968. The love for travel would take sterling to Tanzania, Kenya, Morocco, China, South Korea, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium, Honduras, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Malta, and Peru.
While growing up, Sterling worked several jobs, bagging groceries, selling shoes and magazine subscriptions. While attending High School he worked as a merchandise selector for Sears Roebuck and Company and as an assistant baker at Illinois Bell Telephone Company, He graduated St Mel High School in 1968. He studied history and political science at Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina, graduating in 1968. In 1972 he received a Master of Arts in Public Administration from Bowling Green State University. In 1973 he entered The Ohio State University Graduate School of Political Science where earned a Ph.D. in International Relations and U.S. Foreign Policy.
About Sterling Johnson
Professional Career
Commissioned by President Jimmy Carter, Dr. Johnson worked for the U.S. Department of State from 1979-1984 serving as a counselor officer and in the fisheries bureau. He worked in Peru interviewing hundreds of immigrants and non-immigrant visa applicants each day. He was invited by opposition political parties to attended Peruvian parliamentary sessions. As a political officer he was tasked with tracking Sendero Luminoso, a Maoist organization terrorizing indigenous rural villages, bombing the Firestone and Sears stores, the U.S. Embassy and the Ambassador’s residence. This work included visiting incarcerated U.S. citizens arrested for narcotics manufacturing or trafficking.
After leaving government work sterling went to teach political science at Temple University and Tougaloo College in Mississippi. After studying computer science at Atlanta University, Dr. Johnson moved to Central Michigan to teach American Foreign Policy, International Law, International Criminal Law African Political Systems, International Relations, African American Politics, the Civil Rights Movement. He taught U.S. Foreign policy and Civil Rights at Groningen University in the Netherlands, International Relations at the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara and International Law ant Fort Bragg.