After her racing career took her around the world, she returned home to the Schuylkill river to try to change that.
Now, she runs the only Black-owned and operated rowing club in America and is leading the way for women of color in rowing.
6abc Photojournalists Maureen Wellner and Lyndsey Teague take us out on the water, where Johnson now teaches rowing out of her "Boathouse Without Walls."