Harlan Johnson

Harlan Johnson was born in 1923 up in Johnson Hollow, up past Altizer. He graduated from Douglass High School in 1941, and was drafted that same year into the United States Army Air Force, where he served as an aircraft mechanic in the 332nd Fighter Group, known as the Tuskegee Airmen and the Red Tails.

After the war, he came home and served Huntington as a mail carrier for several years while going to school at WV State College. There he studied carpentry and mechanics – he always had a love for mechanics and during this time, he was voted by his peers as a member of Huntington’s Top Black Businessmen. But he settled on being a carpenter and helped build many churches, office buildings and houses across Huntington.