WASHINGTON — During his more than four decades at WUSA9, Bruce Johnson covered every major story. But even in retirement, he's not done.
Johnson is now telling one of the most important stories of his life: his own.
After years of writing and research, Johnson finally finished his book, “Surviving Deep Waters," which was published on Feb. 8.
"I didn't want to write just a journalism book, ok?" Johnson explained. "I wanted to write a story about a kid who grows up poor, to a poor mother, who was raised by a grandmother. They lived in an alley. They were evicted so many times, they stopped packing and unpacking."
The book, he says, is about life lessons; like what he learned growing up poor and fatherless in Kentucky.
"You can get away from the projects, the poverty and the violence, the blatant segregation, racism and all that other stuff," Johnson said. "But you never get away clean. You bring some of that with you."
Johnson said some of it he unknowingly brought with him to Washington, including an aspect of his childhood and his mother’s deepest secret.
"So, I'm 40 years old. My mom is visiting me in Washington. Very proud of her son. She loved it when I would bring her to Washington," Johnson recalls. "So, one time she comes and she's sitting in the breakfast room with me and she says, 'your father died.' I'm like, 'Les?'”
Johnson said his mother went on to tell him Les wasn’t his biological father.
“Your father was a guy by the name of Robert Richard Marshall," Johnson remembers his mother saying. "I'm like, 'what? Why are you telling me this now?'"
Johnson writes about his life following that riveting revelation, coupled with handling what would turn out to be some of the most trauma-inducing periods of his career.
He starts with the drama surrounding D.C. Mayor Marion Barry’s administration.
"It was a hard story to cover," Johnson said. "There was a lot of personal disappointment there because, at one point in time, our sons were almost the best of friends. But, in the end, I was the only journalist that Marion Barry allowed to speak at his funeral. He planned his own funeral."
At the same time, Johnson said the hypocritical coverage of the D.C. crack epidemic was unbearable — and shares a few stories he noted, are uncomfortable.
"We would have conversations in the editorial meeting," Johnson said. "I would ask, 'when are we going to start covering the drug use outside of the Black community?' It's not just poor Black people using drugs. They'd all be dead of overdoses. The demand is coming from people who work, have incomes, who have means. You'd get silence sometimes because the drug use had infiltrated our newsroom and every newsroom."
Also unbearable, Johnson recalled, was witnessing the persistent heartache and destruction of lives during that period, from some of his colleagues to those in the community.
"I don't recall anyone ever saying you guys have seen enough for today. Take tomorrow off," Johnson said. "Go see your shrink, your doctor, your pastor, whatever. It was, 'get back out there.' A lot of people don't want to question and go there in terms of self-help. There's something wrong. How do I fix it? We can't fix ourselves. My parent and that generation was always like, toughen up. Suck it up. Are you kidding me? That suck up, toughen up -- that is what kills you. Mentally first."
While Johnson is done with his book, he's not done being a journalist. In particular, he said he still has questions for the Jan. 6 insurrectionists.
"What is it about this country that has you so pissed off?" Johnson asks. "You've been given everything."
For a young Black boy who didn't grow up with much, Johnson said, there's one reason he was able to get to this point in life, with a successful career, a beautiful family and his health.
"Through life, grace has saved me from a number of instances," Johnson said.