Attorney Francys Johnson was recognized in Atlanta Saturday as the Civil Rights Lawyer of the Year.

“Francys Johnson has built an incredible reputation of fighting to protect civil rights and this high honor is well deserved,” said Jatrean M. Sanders, Gate City Bar Association president.

The annual R. E. Thomas Jr. Civil Rights Award is given by the Gate City Bar Association, Georgia’s oldest Bar Association for African American attorneys that was founded in 1948. 

The honor is named after Roscoe E. Thomas Jr., or R.E. as he was better known, who was a pioneer in the Atlanta legal community. He was famous for his desegregation lawsuits that integrated all municipal golf courses in the City of Atlanta.

“I will use this professional affirmation as fuel in our quest to balance the scales of justice for all people,” Johnson said. 

Johnson, who is a bi-vocational pastor and has served Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Pembroke for the last 23 years, also practices criminal and civil law in the state and federal courts in Georgia. He is a senior partner of Davis Bozeman Johnson Law on Main Street in downtown Statesboro. 

A graduate of Georgia Southern University and the University of Georgia School of Law, Johnson previously served on the Political Science and Criminal Justice faculties at Georgia Southern University and Savannah State University, teaching courses on Criminal Law; Constitutional Law; Race and the law; and the Civil Rights Movement. 

He serves the profession as a member of the Board of Governors for the State Bar of Georgia; the State's Judicial Qualifications Commission; the Federal Judiciary Advisory Commission; and the Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism. 

Johnson is the former state president of the Georgia NAACP and succeeded Stacey Abrams and Rev. Raphael Warnock as the head of the New Georgia Project.

Johnson received his award Saturday at the Association’s Hall of Fame Gala in Buckhead.