Alvin T. Johnson

Alvin T. Johnson was born in a shack on the “Colored Side of Town” in Hickory, Mississippi, in 1939, to two of the most remarkable parents, France Fillmore Johnson, his father, who was self-employed, and Exie Carrol Johnson, his mother, a schoolteacher. He grew up in Chicago, Illinois, and lived in some of the toughest neighborhoods on the south side and in the Cabrini Green Projects, where rape, robberies, drugs, and murder were rampant. Alvin is a U.S. Army veteran and a serial entrepreneur, as demonstrated by his having successfully operated a number of businesses. Against all odds he advanced from abject poverty to being a millionaire. One of his favorite sayings is, “If at first you do not succeed, beat the crap out of the people that got in your way then try again.”