P. Anna Johnson Journals

P. Anna Johnson (b. 1938) is an activist, publisher, writer, and potter who founded Open Hand Publishing Inc. to "fill the gaps at a time when too many writings by and about people of color were rejected by corporate publishing houses that said there was no market for them." (Johnson, 2008)

P. Anna Johnson was born on July 18, 1938 in Niagara Falls, New York. She graduated from Colby College in 1960. In that same year, she became involved with the American civil rights movement. After graduating and moving to Boston, Johnson worked as a counselor at Boston Center for Blind Children, studied dance at the Boston Conservatory of Music, and participated in the SANE Committee for Nuclear Disarmament. Johnson married Robert W. Rodieck in 1961, and moved to Sydney, Australia due to escalating nuclear tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. While in Sydney, Johnson taught modern dance in a public high school, worked as a research assistant in the economics department at Sydney University, studied ceramics at East Sydney Technical College, and helped found the Kinma School, which provides an alternative approach to educating children ages 3-12. Johnson also established a pottery studio and became a respected potter in Australia’s art community. Johnson's two sons, Arlo Eugene (1969) and Jorma Leonard (1972), were born during these years.

In 1978, after Johnson and Rodieck divorced, Johnson returned to the United States at her friend James Forman's urging and once again became involved in the civil rights movement as well as the peace movement. In 1981, with the intent of publishing books by people of color, Johnson founded Open Hand Publishing Inc. in Seattle, Washington. The small publisher gained recognition for the high quality of its books for both adults and children, including the best-selling The Making of Black Revolutionaries by Forman.

As Open Hand’s publisher, Johnson attended book fairs across the world and became a board member of Book Publishers Northwest and The Multicultural Publisher’s Exchange. Johnson remained an activist in other areas as well—she was a member of the Crabshell Alliance, Women Strike for Peace, Seattle Act for Peace, and a founding member of Seattle’s musical social justice group, the Raging Grannies. Johnson sold Open Hand Publishing Inc. in 2000, and moved to Portland, Oregon in 2002. While living in Portland, she served as a mentor in public schools, as a master gardener teaching gardening in the county jail, participated in the Oregon Food Bank’s Learning Garden project, and protested for peace alongside the Women in Black.

Johnson wrote and published two memoirs, Australia Years: The Life of A Nuclear Migrant (2006) and Publishing Years: The Story of a Small Press (2020). P. Anna Johnson currently resides in Bethesda, Maryland, near her son, Arlo, and his family.