Damaged Heritage: The Elaine Race Massacre and a Story of Reconciliation, 2020

In 2008, Johnson was asked to write the Litany of Offense and Apology for a National Day of Repentance, where the Episcopal Church formally apologized for its role in transatlantic slavery and related evils. In the course of his research, Johnson came upon a treatise by historian and anti-lynching advocate Ida B. Wells on the Elaine Massacre, where more than a hundred and possibly hundreds of African-American men, women, and children perished at the hands of white posses, vigilantes, and federal troops in rural Phillips County, Arkansas. As he worked, Johnson discovered that his beloved grandfather had participated in the Massacre. Determined to find some way to acknowledge and reconcile this terrible truth, Chester would eventually meet Sheila L. Walker, a descendant of African-American victims of the Massacre. Together, she and Johnson committed themselves to a journey of racial reconciliation and abiding friendship. This journeys is the subject of Johnson's book, Damaged Heritage.