If not for the old Matlock television series, Ashley T. Johnson may not have become the first Black female and first-ever woman to oversee the local FBI office. In October, former FBI Director Christopher Wray appointed Johnson Special Agent in charge of the St. Louis Field Office.
In an interview with the St. Louis American, Johnson chuckled as she admitted it was Matlock, which premiered in the late 1980s, starring the ever-affable Andy Griffith, that drew her interest in the law enforcement.
“I’d literally come inside from playing at 3 o’clock just to watch Matlock and all my friends would tease me and, until this day, I watch it whenever it’s on.”
Johnson, who described herself as an “inquisitive child,” explained what drew her to the TV show: “It was the investigative side of it. I was always intrigued how they put the pieces of the puzzle together, how they followed mysteries…”
It was perhaps the only part of the interview where the FBI director laughed or displayed a sliver of self-deprecating humor. Otherwise, her answers were direct, by-the-book with no unnecessary words or elongated replies.
Even when asked about negative actions connected to the FBI’s history, such as its 1950s and ‘60s-era COINTELPRO program that targeted, among others, Black civil rights leaders, and anti-war opponents or scandalous charges of sexism within the agency, Johnson’s answers were matter of fact, without antisepsis or delusion.
Growing up, the Mobile Alabama native didn’t foresee a career in law enforcement. Like her parents, aunts and other relatives who worked in education, Johnson saw herself following their paths. In fact, she was an education major for the first year and a half of her college years. But then at the end of her sophomore year, one of her professors told her about a career fair hosted by the local FBI office. That experience prompted her to change her major to criminal justice.
After college, Johnson spent three years as a probation officer but went back to school to get a master’s degree in social work. She then became a child abuse investigator then a psychiatric social worker in the medical field.
Still, the FBI career fair experience stayed with her. She applied for a position with the FBI’s “victim’s specialist” program which she felt was in the ballpark of social work skills. The special agent in charge of the Mobile office encouraged her instead to apply for a special agent’s position which she felt would better suit Johnson’s skills.
Special Agents are trained in various fields including organized crime, cybercrime, counterintelligence, terrorism, drug trafficking, community outreach, investigation, and are trained to work in tandem with local, state and foreign counterparts using the latest technologies in intelligence-gathering and data analysis.
The Mobile director’s intuition was right. Johnson joined the FBI as a special agent in 2007 assigned to the New Orleans Division, where she investigated civil rights and white-collar crime violations. Other leadership roles in her nearly 16-year career included a supervisory special agent role with the New Orleans’ Cyber Division, supervisor of the domestic terrorism squad with the Atlanta Division, head of the FBI squad at the world’s busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International and special agent in charge of the Atlanta criminal branch.
In her role as recruiter, Johnson has been asked why she chose to join an organization that has had a controversial and adversarial relationship with Black communities and Black leaders that included the period when then FBI director J. Edgar Hoover targeted during the civil rights era.
The 1991 film, “Silence of the Lambs,” apparently only gave a glimpse of the blatant sexism trainees like the fictional Clarise Stalling (played by Jodie Foster) endure at the FBI. Last year the FBI was fined $22.6 million in a discrimination lawsuit that claimed women trainees (from 2015 to 2024) were wrongfully dismissed from training due to sexism. The agency was charged with violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
Johnson credited and restated FBI Director Wray’s candid acknowledgement of the FBI’s misdeeds in the past, adding that her position is a positive step in avoiding misdeeds of the future.
“You have to be at the table to make change,’ right? It’s hard to make an impact on policies or investigations or advocate for resources if you’re not seated at the table,” Johnson explained. “So, what inspired me to go into leadership…to make lasting, organizational change, I needed to be in a position to make people aware of what the issues are in order to change them.”
Does she find being appointed the first Black woman and first woman period to lead the St. Louis FBI office weighty or daunting?
“I see it more as “humbling” and keeping me in perspective,” Johnson answered. “I want to always position myself, present myself so years from now this question won’t be relevant. There will be other women and minorities that will come behind me.
“I just want to make sure I carry myself where I won’t be the first five or ten years from now. That’s my goal.”
Sylvester Brown Jr. is the Deaconess Foundation Community Advocacy Fellow.
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Great story! Love the lede.
Grateful to have someone with a Social Work background in the highest level of law enforcement. I wish we required that for every official.
Thankyou for taking a large role in StLouis to help us.
Julia S.