Pioneering car dealer Sam Johnson dies at age 84

CALVIN FERGUSON | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Sam Johnson, who went from washing vehicles at a used car shop in St. Louis to the first Black new-car dealership owner in the Carolinas, died June 1 at age 84.

Sam Johnson, who went from son of an Arkansas sharecropper to a pioneering Carolinas auto dealer, died June 1 in Bluffton, S.C.

Mr. Johnson, owner of Sam Johnson Lincoln-Mercury in Charlotte, built his automotive empire during the dawn of greater ownership opportunities for Black entrepreneurs. At the height of his company’s holdings in the 1990s, Mr. Johnson owned five dealerships in three states that employed 300 people and generated annual sales of more than $164 million.

Mr. Johnson, who was born in 1939, started his automotive career as a 17-year-old washing vehicles at a St. Louis used car lot for $25 a day. He worked his way up to parts truck driver and was promoted to salesman at a new-car dealership in 1965, where he was the St. Louis area’s top Buick salesman seven years in a row.

“He rose from a young ‘lot boy’ at a Saint Louis new car dealership to successful ownership of his own dealership across the River in East Saint Louis despite the time of national economic crisis,” said Ken Koontz, a former WBTV reporter who counted Mr. Johnson as one of his first clients at his public relations company when it opened in 1983.

In 1973 Mr. Johnson made the leap to ownership through Ford Motor Co.’s minority dealer development program, which also provided funding to buy a dealership in East St. Louis, Ill. He doubled sales in the first year.

In 1977, Mr. Johnson moved to Charlotte, where he bought his flagship store. Its success was converted into S&J Enterprises, a family-run business made of four Ford dealerships in three states. Other automakers created programs to develop minority owned and operated dealerships, and Black entrepreneurs joined Mr. Johnson in Charlotte, including Omar Leatherman, a Chrysler dealer, and Reggie Hubbard, who sold Honda vehicles.

Mr. Johnson sold his Charlotte dealership in 2002 and retired to South Carolina but remained in the business. He bought a dealership in Summerville, S.C., that he sold in 2015 while retaining stores in Fayetteville and Tupelo, Miss.

Mr. Johnson is survived by his wife, the Rev. L. Vanessa Johnson; children Kenneth, Dana, Sam Jr. Ari and Vidonne; brothers Clyde, Eli and Harry Harris. The wake will be held June 7 from 6-8 p.m. at St. Stephen AME Church in Hardeeville, S.C. and the funeral service is June 8 at 12 p.m. at Campbell Chapel AME Church in Bluffton.

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