By Andy Owens
Managing Editor

Harriet McBryde Johnson, the seemingly frail lawyer with a bright smile, was more than a Charleston civil attorney and outspoken legal advocate for the disabled. For more than 25 years, she chided the self-righteous and lambasted those who took pity on the disabled.

A frequent recipient of Johnson’s ridicule was Jerry Lewis’s telethon for Muscular Dystrophy, which she said fosters a “charity mentality” and uses “pity-based tactics” to raise money.

Johnson died suddenly on June 4 at age 50. Born with a congenital neuromuscular disorder, she dedicated her life to educating the public that a handicap did not have to limit a person’s ability to succeed. 

In 2003, she took her views to Princeton University to debate professor Peter Singer and challenge his take on the rights of disabled children.

“He wants to legalize the killing of certain babies who might come to be like me if allowed to live,” Johnson wrote in The New York Times. “He also says he believes that it should be lawful under some circumstances to kill, at any age, individuals with cognitive impairments so severe that he doesn’t consider them ‘persons.’ What does it take to be a person?”

Johnson, who ran a solo practice on Church Street, was also known for her writing in other publications, including The Washington Post, Slate magazine and other national magazines. In two books, Johnson chronicled her experiences and views, including “Accidents of Nature” and “Too Late to Die Young: Nearly True Tales from a Life.” Her friends in the legal community said she hoped to use her written work to dispel the prejudices surrounding individuals with handicaps.

“She had a tremendous impact on countless individuals across the nation, and her advocacy for the disabled community helped change deeply ingrained misconceptions about living with disabilities,” said John Nichols, president of the South Carolina Trial Lawyers Association.

Johnson was a member of the Trial Lawyers Association for more than 10 years. She earned a B.S. in history from Charleston Southern University, a master’s degree in public administration from the College of Charleston and a J.D. from the University of South

Carolina. 

Charleston attorney Susan Dunn, who worked in the same office building as Johnson, said her friend and colleague was a lawyer’s lawyer.

“I didn’t always agree with her, but I always knew what she was thinking,” Dunn said. “She was always scholarly in the way she dealt with legal issues even if close to her own heart. She was a very meticulous attorney.”

Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. called Johnson courageous and inspirational because she refused to let anything limit her and challenged anyone else who did.

“Here was this quiet person with a substantial physical challenge who never for one instant ever communicated that there was anything difficult for her and that she was not going to let her physical challenges keep her from using her intellect in a most positive way,” Riley said.

Johnson’s lasting gift, he said, would be a reminder that everyone deserves justice in a legal and intellectual sense.

“As a lawyer, her legacy is the reminder of the responsibility of the profession to make sure that justice is done,” Riley said. “For everyone else, her legacy is that no one should ever feel that there is a physical infirmity that prevents them from using their mind.”

“My professional and political life is all about using words to influence behavior,” Johnson once said. “Persuading people requires conveying information, surely, but also eliciting emotions. Whether I’m writing a legal brief for a judge, an eye-catching press release or broadside or a short letter to a semi-literate client, the basic challenge is the same.”

Johnson was the daughter of David and Ada Johnson. The family plans to hold a memorial service at a later date.

Andy Owens is the managing editor for the Business Journal. E-mail him at aowens@scbiznews.com.

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