These twins helped integrate a middle school, now they’re judges in the same courthouse

BATON ROUGE, La. (InvestigateTV) - Twin brothers Donald and Ronald Johnson were 14 years old in 1968 when they helped integrate Westdale Middle School in Baton Rouge. Today, they walk those same corridors as judges who say that pivotal moment shaped their lifelong commitment to justice.

The Johnson brothers now serve as judges in the 19th Judicial District courthouse, with Donald serving as chief judge.

Early integration experience

The brothers left their familiar environment to join other Black students integrating Westdale in 1968. They sat on bleachers in the school gym on their first day.

“There was a perception that something better was there, something that I was not was there, and I could be that,” said Judge Donald Johnson.

“We were always on the outside looking in so to speak and we wondered what that world was like,” said Judge Ronald Johnson.

The brothers faced rejection, isolation and racial hostility from other students.

“Now came rejection, now came isolation, now came eyes looking at you. People not speaking to you,” Ronald Johnson said.

Learning self-control

The experience taught the brothers self-control and restraint in the face of threats and racial slurs.

Donald felt like the two had to prove they were not different. “One way of proving that was to excel at trying to be good, educated students. Not only that…we had to wear masks.”

The two had to “subdue” their energy, according to Donald.

“Even when we were right about something, we had to not defend that right,” he said. “We had to just experience it and that was difficult for me because I’m not one to let someone hit me and I don’t want to hit them back, but that was good because I had to learn how not to do that.”

Impact on judicial careers

The brothers say their integration experience influences their work as judges today.

“The experiences of having been unfairly treated culturally, legally and all that historical context… brings me forward today to make certain that this court treats everyone fair,” Donald told us.

Chief Judge Donald Johnson said experiencing two different cultures gave him an advantage on the bench.

“I asked myself why are you able to pull rabbits out of a hat, because I had two world experiences. I had two world experiences. I understood both and others only understood one. So, I had an advantage,” he said.

Westdale today

Westdale Middle School is now predominantly Black with Ramona Henderson serving as its first Black principal. The school has award-winning programs and serves students from different racial and linguistic backgrounds.

“We have different races here. We have different languages spoken here,” Henderson said.

The Johnson brothers encourage current students to challenge unfair structures and never give up hope.

“You challenge structures that are unequal, unfair. You speak up, you stand up. And if you move your feet, that old African proverb, pray but move your feet. Pray but move your feet,” Donald Johnson said.

“When I rise, you rise. If I keep teaching that message to them and keep saying that, but not only say it, to live it, then they too can believe as I did… and rise above,” Ronald Johnson said.

Both brothers graduated from Baton Rouge High School, which desegregated in 1963, and earned engineering degrees before attending law school.

Judge Ronald Johnson’s daughter, Eboni Johnson Rose, also serves as a judge in the same courthouse.