Daily News | From a family tragedy to City Hall, how Kenyatta Johnson rose to power before his corruption trial
When a cousin of City Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson was killed outside Childs Elementary School in 1998, some members of the family wanted revenge.
But now he and his wife, Dawn Chavous, Williams’ former chief of staff, find themselves in federal court, accused of very different crimes from the ones Johnson sought to avoid becoming entangled with when he turned his back on the streets after his cousin was killed. It’s also become a flashpoint in the debate over the parochial and opaque manner in which Council handles allunder which each district Council member wields effective veto power over land-use decisions in their district. Johnson’s district has seen intense development pressure, and the gentrification of Point Breeze has caused a series of controversies between some developers and Black neighborhood leaders who see Johnson as a bulwark against their community’s displacement.
After the death of his cousin, Sultan “Chick” Chandler, Johnson started volunteering with the powerful political organization led by Williams’ father, the late State Sen. Hardy Williams, which has launched the careers of many Black elected officials in South and Southwest Philadelphia. The elder Williams became a mentor, and Johnson ended up working as a constituent services representative for the younger Williams.
A few years later, Williams and a group of friends of his late father recruited Johnson to run for the seat being vacated by then-City Council President Anna C. Verna, who was stepping down after 37 years on council.
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