By Cinya Burton

Thin leather shoes scuffle over the snow-covered pavement and icy street corners. The temperature in Washington DC is in the single digits and Haamid “Happy” Johnson’s caramel colored leather jacket –collar propped up –matches his shoes, but not the climate. He wobbles on the sides of his feet, his knees jutted outward as he trots down N Street, stopping briefly to point out a massive brick mansion owned by Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.).  Politics are usually at the forefront of Johnson’s thoughts, but at this moment his physical discomfort comes first. 

“My feet hurt so bad from running this week,” he says as he lifts his left foot. 

Johnson is in the midst of training for the Mardi Gras Marathon to raise money for rebuilding efforts in New Orleans. The 26.2 mile marathon is one of many activities Johnson is currently involved with to help Hurricane Katrina evacuees.  

A senior at Georgetown University, Johnson is the founder of BlanketNewOrleans.Org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing humanitarian and disaster relief for New Orleans. The name came to Johnson in January 2006 while volunteering for the National Guard as he handed out blankets to residents in the city’s 9th Ward. 

“It was the most trying thing of my entire life, confronting that everyday,” said Johnson. 

He describes exhausting days driving emergency vehicles for the Red Cross plagued by the smell of mold, and distributing around 600 meals a day to displaced residents. For more than a month, Johnson traveled around the 9th Ward listening to stories of despair and hope. This was only the beginning of his dedication to rebuild the city with which he had fallen in love. 

“I went down there as a concerned citizen of America,” he says. “It’s our responsibility. I was upset and I said, you know, they aren’t doing anything. So I did something. If we wait for the government to fix New Orleans it will never get fixed.” 

Although the Republican Party has a slim African American following, Johnson was a highly involved registered Republican.  A former White House intern under the current Bush administration, Johnson says that he was disappointed that he had given more than 500 hours of service to a President that he believes dropped the ball. He traces back to a few weeks after Hurricane Katrina, and says that President Bush had another chance to showcase exceptional leadership in American history and did not rise to the challenge. 

“After 9/11 Bush was on point. It was a great moment when our plain-spoken president was standing on top of the rumble speaking to victims of disaster. Now juxtapose that to Katrina and we have the image of Bush looking down out of a helicopter window,” he said. “Leadership is about principle… he should have been on the ground with water and blankets.” 

For Johnson, Hurricane Katrina changed more than his party following. It gave him a clear-cut path for the next several years, as well as the belief that aiding evacuees is his, in his words, “calling.” In association with St. Bernard Parish, BlanketNewOrleans.org has raised $14,000, provided thousands of Katrina victims with blankets, and continues to gather teams of volunteers to gut houses and remove debris. 

“I haven’t met anyone who volunteered that wasn’t affected by [the experience]. I don’t talk to anyone [who] doesn’t think about it everyday,” Johnson said. 

These relief efforts were not enough for Johnson. As a government major and lover of politics since the age of eight, he knew the battle to rebuild New Orleans was being fought on Capitol Hill. After a frustrating confrontation with Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), Johnson began formulating a plan so that his voice and the voice of Hurricane Katrina victims would be heard.  

On Monday, January 29, 2007, dressed in neat blue suit, Happy Johnson stood up and repeatedly yelled, “Stand up for Justice!” during the Senate hearings investigating the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina inside a courthouse in New Orleans. Above his head he displayed a homemade sign with blue spray-painted stencil letters that read: “Probe the White House.” 

“I chose ‘Probe the White House’ because that’s what they decide not to do…and probing the White House takes acts of courage and justice,” he said. 

In preparing for his protest, Johnson studied the techniques of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and said he was ready to be arrested for his actions.  Although no legal action was taken the incident was picked up by CNN and spread through YouTube and facebook.com networks. The normally reserved, Johnson was now seen as a “heckler.” 

“People are responding in a productive way,” Johnson said about the reaction to the protest. “It was a call to action…people not normally involved now come up to me and say ‘I didn’t realize you were so upset!’” 

With a broad smile on his youthful brown face, Johnson explains about his strong Catholic background. While many would consider Johnson’s upbringings to be a hard life – an absent father and a mother struggling with drug addiction landed him in the foster care system until high school – he takes it all in stride.  

“Despite all those things, life is good. I get a lot of strength through prayer, reflection, and gospel music,” Johnson said. 

Johnson was adopted by his foster care family at age 14, and has discovered through his involvement in Louisiana that he has family connections in the local New Orleans’s area, a fact unknown to him until recently. 

“It’s sad to think that my grandfather’s church is gone because of the flood…those are my roots,” he said.

Johnson currently moved in with his aunt in New Orleans and plans to live there after graduation in May.