Johnnie Colemon

Colemon retired in 2006. She died at Mercy Hospital in Chicago on December 23, 2014 at the age of 94. She is interred in Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago.

Colemon founded Christ Unity Temple, later Christ Universal Temple, a Chicago-based megachurch. In 1974 Colemon founded the Universal Foundation for Better Living, in response to racism experienced as part of Unity, "an international association of Bible-based New Thought Christian churches, centers, and study groups." She received a Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in 1987.

After being diagnosed with an incurable disease, Colemon had a crisis of faith deciding to attend Unity School of Christianity. Colemon was the third Black student ordained as a Unity Minister in 1956. While a student at Unity School, Colemon like all Black students at the time, was told she could not live on campus. For two years, Colemon commuted 15 miles each way to the YWCA in Kansas City before the campus was desegregated.

Johnnie Colemon (February 18, 1920 – December 23, 2014) was an influential minister and teacher in the New Thought movement. She is often referred to as the “First Lady of New Thought”. Colemon founded several large organizations within the African-American New Thought movement, including Christ Universal Temple (CUT) and the Universal Foundation for Better Living (UFBL). The Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary is named in her honor.

Colemon was born to John and Lula Haley in Centerville, Alabama on February 18, 1920 but her family moved to Columbus, Mississippi at an early age, and she identified more with that location as her birthplace, leading others to misidentify Columbus, Mississippi as her place of origin. She attended Union Academy High School and graduated from Wiley College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1943. She then taught at schools in Mississippi and Chicago.