Minnie Moore-Johnson, longtime celebrated community activist and social ‘game changer,’ has died at 86
Her decades of civic contributions were recognized by several U.S. presidents, the U.S. House of Representatives, former Gov. Ed Rendell, former Mayor Wilson Goode, City Council, and dozens of other groups.
Minnie Moore-Johnson, 86, of Philadelphia, longtime celebrated community activist, founder and executive director of Concerned Parents Inc., onetime program manager for the Pennsylvania Prison Society, mentor, and lifeline to many, died Friday, May 8, of age-associated decline at her home.
Born in New York, Dr. Moore-Johnson moved to Philadelphia when she was young and spent the next 60 years advocating for the city’s disadvantaged, and organizing Thanksgiving meals for the elderly and needy, and Christmas parties for children.
Over 20 years, what began in 1968 as a Thanksgiving meal for a dozen or so elderly neighbors in her South Philadelphia home morphed into a nationally-acclaimed feast for thousands of seniors at dozens of locations, including the old Civic Center, on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
For that and her other community activism — she also organized daily food deliveries, laundry service, and free transportation for seniors — Dr. Moore-Johnson earned hundreds of honors, awards, resolutions, and certificates of appreciation. Her other work with the incarcerated, the unhoused, the unemployed, and the vulnerable, was recognized by several U.S. presidents, the U.S. House of Representatives, former Gov. Ed Rendell, former Mayor Wilson Goode, City Council, and dozens of other groups.
“For decades, she stood as a pillar of hope across Philadelphia,” Dr. Moore-Johnson’s family said in a tribute. “She made people feel seen. She made people feel valued. And most importantly, she made people believe that someone still cared.”
Charismatic, energetic, and organized, Dr. Moore-Johnson, just 5-foot-1, recruited thousands of volunteers and donors for various projects through Concerned Parents Inc. She collaborated with the Pennsylvania Prison Society for a decade, shaped and managed its reentry service program as a life skills educator, and taught an innovative job development course at Temple University.
With Philadelphia Safe and Sound, she addressed violence against young people. With Fathers and Children Together, she united fathers in prison with their children.
She also hosted holiday parties and dinners at her own home in Southwest Philadelphia, and City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier called her house a “safe haven where [people] can always find a hot meal or place to stay.” In 2024, City Council labeled the 5400 block of Woodland Avenue as Dr. Minnie Moore-Johnson Way.
She was called an “impact maker” by Africa Town Philadelphia, and colleagues at the National Association of Black Female Executives in Music & Entertainment said: “Her accomplishments in the service of others give people an actual role model to look up to.” Most recently, she was program director for the Rev. Mary L.B. Franks Resource Center at Wayland Memorial Baptist Church.
The oldest of 19 siblings, Dr. Moore-Johnson was generally in charge everywhere she lived, and she told the Daily News in 1984: “We were a large family. We never had a lot of money, but we were taught to share. … When you’re raised that way, as you get older, you know nothing but to share.”
She was adept at forging partnerships and mentoring others. In online tributes, colleagues called her “a game changer and force for the good” and said: “She created a legacy of love that generations continue to feel.”
She was a board member at the Greater Philadelphia Health Action, former director of the Tasker Homes Emergency Food Center, longtime block captain, and a committee person for the 51st Ward. Earlier, she worked for the state’s Department of Public Welfare and the Philadelphia Housing Authority.
Dr. Moore-Johnson appeared often in The Inquirer, Daily News, and other publications. As the scope of her signature Thanksgiving dinners grew in the 1970s and ‘80s, so did her celebrity. She became known across the region by reporters as “Little Miss Minnie” and “the good Samaritan.”
She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and a doctorate in criminal justice, she said, but conceded to The Inquirer in 1988 that she paid little attention to bookkeeping after her business finances were questioned by the state. In the 1960s and ’70s, she served probation briefly for business financial infractions.
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“She understood struggle,” her family said, “because she walked alongside people through it every single day.”
Thomasina Curry was born March 4, 1940. She married Lawrence Moore, and they divorced later.
She married Leonard Johnson Sr. in the late 1990s, and he told The Inquirer in 2015: “I fell in love with her spirit first.” He died in 2022.
She had daughters Frances and Kimberly, and sons Barry and Roland. Barry died in 2023, and Roland died in March.
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Dr. Moore-Johnson loved music. She was a deaconess at church, classy and jazzy, her daughters said, and cooked many of those Thanksgiving turkey dinners in her own kitchen. “She spent her life teaching Philadelphia what real service looks like,” her family said.
Her daughter Frances said: “She did things from her heart and soul.”
In addition to her daughters, Dr, Moore-Johnson is survived by dozens of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, several siblings, and other relatives.
Visitation with the family is to be from 2 to 6 p.m., Friday, May 29, at Wayland Memorial Baptist Church, 5126 Baltimore Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19143. A service is to follow.
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A block party celebration of her life that she requested is to be from 2 to 7 p.m., Saturday, May 30, at 5436 Woodland Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19143.
Donations in her name may be made to the Rev. Mary L.B. Franks Resource Center, Wayland Memorial Baptist Church, 5126 Baltimore Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19143.
