Ever since David J. Johns was named executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition in 2017, he has been an indispensable voice for marginalized communities thanks to his passion and relentless pursuit of equality. 

Johns, who was named the first executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans by President Barack Obama in 2013, has dedicated himself to fighting racism, discrimination, homophobia and negative stigmas surrounding the LGBTQ community, with a special focus on Black LGBTQ persons and those living with HIV and AIDS.

The educator, raised in Inglewood, CA, and a 2004 summa cum laude graduate of Columbia University, described the inspiration for his life's mission:

"Growing up, I rarely saw people who looked like me, who showed up in the world as I did -- equally proud of and settled into their Blackness as well as their queerness. For me, this meant embracing same-gender attraction as a fundamental part of who I am and how I move through the world." 

Leading campaigns to provide platforms for students, Black people and the LGBTQ community while advancing civil rights, Johns continues to fight to help strengthen the Black family. 

Johns told the Ubuntu Biography Project, "I envision a world in which each of us are free -- physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, financially and otherwise -- to show up just as we are without fear of shame, stigma or harm."