Name: Walking the Same Ground: Rooted in the Work | A Community Conversation with Rev. Peter Johnson
Start: 2026-02-19T15:00:00-06:00
End: 2026-02-19T16:30:00-06:00
Location: 6407 Carlton Garrett St, Dallas, TX 75215

*PLEASE REGISTER TO ATTEND FREE EVENT*
Walking the Same Ground: Rooted in the Work
A Community Conversation with Rev. Peter Johnson
This gathering invites the Dallas community into a sacred and honest conversation about where the work of economic justice has been — and what it requires of us now.
At the heart of the afternoon is a dialogue between Rev. Peter Johnson, civil rights icon and former leader of Operation Breadbasket, and Melissa Metoyer, Senior Director of Health Equity & Community Impact at Bonton Farms. Together, they will explore how the principles that shaped Operation Breadbasket — faith, nonviolence, economic self-determination, and community-led power — continue to live on through the work unfolding at Bonton Farms today.
Operation Breadbasket served as the economic arm of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s movement, organizing Black consumer power to secure jobs, contracts, and dignity, and affirming that civil rights and economic justice are inseparable. During his recent visit to Bonton Farms, Rev. Johnson recognized the work being done there as a modern expression of that same vein — rooted in local people, food, opportunity, and relationships.
The conversation will move through civil rights history, the central leadership of Black women, the role of faith in sustaining justice work, and the urgent realities facing communities today — poverty, incarceration, and access to opportunity. It is an intergenerational exchange grounded in lived experience, spiritual resilience, and love for community.
Following the conversation, the afternoon will open into a panel on entrepreneurship and economic empowerment, featuring representatives from SouthState Bank, Happy State Bank, and the IRS. This panel will translate history into action, offering practical insight into financial literacy, small business development, and pathways to economic stability — continuing the work of building opportunity within the Bonton Farms ecosystem.
This event is part of Rooted & Rising 2026, honoring the legacy we stand on while remaining accountable to the work still ahead. This conversation is for elders and young people, neighbors and partners — all who believe that the work continues when community leads.

BIO – REV. PETER JOHNSON
Rev. Peter Johnson is one of the most enduring civil rights leaders in Dallas — a lifelong activist whose commitment to justice, economic equity, and nonviolence spans more than five decades. Born and raised in Louisiana, Johnson began his work in the movement at a young age, organizing with the NAACP youth chapter, CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), and later the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, and other movement leaders during key campaigns across the South.
In 1969, Johnson came to Dallas as a representative of the SCLC and chose to make the city his home, opening a local office and partnering with neighborhood leaders to resist displacement, fight segregation, and advance economic and social justice for low-income residents. His work with Operation Breadbasket in Dallas — part of the movement’s economic justice strategy — included boycotts, protests, and direct action to secure fair hiring, equitable treatment by businesses, and greater community access to opportunity.
Rev. Johnson has never stopped advocating for economic empowerment, fair housing, voter engagement, hunger relief, and human dignity. He staged prolonged hunger strikes to draw attention to food insecurity and helped lead campaigns for systemic change, including fair employment practices and expanded community resources.
Beyond activism, he has shared his lived experience as an educator, teaching courses on civil rights history and social justice at the University of North Texas-Dallas and founding the Peter Johnson Institute for Nonviolence.
Johnson also contributes as a columnist, offering reflections on racial history and contemporary justice struggles.Throughout his life, Rev. Peter Johnson has embodied the principle that civil rights and economic justice are inseparable — using faith, tenacity, and community power to build possibilities where systems have historically denied them.