Paul B. Johnson, Jr.

Who was Paul B. Johnson, Jr.?

Paul Burney Johnson, Jr. was a United States Democratic Mississippi politician and son of former Mississippi Governor Paul B. Johnson, Sr..

A graduate of the University of Mississippi and Ole Miss Law, Johnson was a practicing attorney in Jackson and Hattiesburg, marrying his college sweetheart Dorothy Power in 1941. During his first year at Ole Miss, he was a member of the freshman Ole Miss football team and was initiated into Sigma Alpha Epsilon social fraternity. He had the distinction of being the only sophomore ever elected president of the Ole Miss student body. After college, Johnson served in the South Pacific with the United States Marine Corps during World War II.

Upon his release from the service, he looked to follow in his father's political footsteps, serving as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi from 1948 to 1951. As described by noted writer Theodore White, Johnson had, for a Southerner, a liberal early record. He supported Harry Truman for President in 1948, Adlai Stevenson in 1952, and had an affectionate reverence for Franklin D.