Tamara Harris Johnson

Tamara Harris Johnson grew up on what is known as “Dynamite Hill”, the nickname of a district of Smithfield, where a series of bombings were designed to intimidate African Americans living in the prosperous community. Also living in this area were civil rights activists Rev. and Mrs. Joseph Lowery; Justice and Mrs. Oscar Adams, Jr.; Attorney and Mrs. Arthur Shores; and Mr. and Mrs. Frank Davis, parents of Dr. Angela Davis.

Johnson’s family has deep civil rights roots: Her grandfather, Dr. Samuel Francis Harris, was one of the first African American physicians in Birmingham. Her father, Dr. Samuel Elliott Harris, was one of two obstetricians and gynecologists in Birmingham who provided quality medical care to everyone regardless of socio-economic status. Her mother, Dixie Gardner Harris was president of B.T.W. Business College, one of the many businesses owned by her aunt and uncle, A. G. and Minnie Gaston. Her maternal grandparents owned the resting site in Lowndes County where civil rights marchers rested during the Selma to Montgomery march.

Tamara completed her Bachelors Degree at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia and earned her law degree at Howard University. She practiced law in in D. C., Michigan, California and Alabama before being appointed city attorney by former mayor Bernard Kincaid as the first female City Attorney for the City of Birmingham. She was also the first female and first African American hired as a labor union attorney to represent The International Brotherhood of Police Officers and National Association of Government Employees. Her practice areas also included being a Deputy City Attorney for Los Angeles; Assistant DA for Jefferson County, AL; and the first In House Counsel for the Birmingham Public School System. She served as an adjunct Professor at Cumberland School of Law and as a Bar Examiner for the State of Alabama.

“My family believed in education and instilled in my siblings and me a strong work ethic,” said Johnson. Those are principles she instilled in her two daughters, Dr. Erica Nicole Parker, an emergency medicine physician in Indianapolis, and attorney Ashley Noelle Johnson, an attorney with the U.S. Air Force who completed a Peace Corps assignment in Kyrgyzstan.  Tamara is active in numerous community and civic organizations, practicing her favorite scripture, "For unto whom much is given, much is required”.