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Received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award in 1986. She was the first black and female cable car conductor in San Francisco. She recorded an album for Liberty Records in 1957 titled "Miss Calypso". Mother of Guy Johnson, author of the novel "Standing at the Scratch Line." The title of her memoir "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" comes from the poem "Sympathy" (specifically, the last stanza) by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. Was nominated for Broadway's 1973 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic) for "Look Away." She was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 2000 by the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington D.C. She recorded an album with Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson, called "Been Found" in 1996. Toured Europe and Africa in an American production cast of 'Porgy and Bess' between 1954 and 1955.