‘The Advocate’

From The Denver Post:

Growing up with his parents and two brothers in the projects of Chicago – in an atmosphere of intimidation “where you didn’t know what was going to happen next” – Skeet Johnson says he was surrounded by love at home.

“My mother was a steadying influence. She vowed that the streets wouldn’t get us,” Johnson recalls.

And his dad, a chauffeur to wealthy Chicagoans, was “the strongest man I know.”

Johnson, 59, retired this month after nearly 23 years as a lawyer with the Colorado State Public Defender’s office, representing in court those accused of crimes.

The Colorado Criminal Defense Bar recently awarded Johnson its 2007 Alvin Lichtenstein Life Achievement Award for his “remarkable accomplishments.”

And now, Johnson is about to write a book: “Strength for the Journey.”

“A large part of it is about my life, the kinds of things that have helped me,” Johnson says.

Much of who Johnson is revolves around his religious beliefs, his work in other countries with the Cure d’Ars Catholic Church – a predominantly African-American parish in northeast Denver – and his faith in his fellow man.

His philosophy is simple: “Life is worth preserving and fighting for. There is a blessing in every storm. You might not see it right away. But it is there.”

Johnson went to Catholic schools and was president of the Black Students Union at the University of Redlands in California the day the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

He later became executive director of the Tennessee Commission for Human Development, the state’s human rights commission.

When Johnson left that job to go to the University of Denver School of Law, he had every intention of becoming a labor lawyer. But a young adjunct professor at DU, Larry Pozner, helped him change his mind.

“I remember sitting in the front row and he (Pozner) was just running back and forth, just talking at the top of his lungs … about how he was going to teach us to be defense lawyers – and if you wanted to be a prosecutor, you were probably in the wrong class,” Johnson recalls with a chuckle.

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