John Lee Johnson, late civil rights advocate and former Champaign city councilman, had his name dedicated by the Champaign City Council Tuesday to a section of Fourth Street between University and Bradley avenues.

The street, which will be known as John Lee Johnson Boulevard, is where community members said Johnson did the bulk of his work, impacting all aspects of the Champaign civil rights movement in the last 35 years.

In addition to his eight-year stint on the council, Johnson worked as an advocate for the poor at the State Mental Health Department Adler Zone Center, was involved in the construction of the Martin Luther King subdivision in Champaign, and helped coordinate Project 500, which aimed to bring 500 black and Latino students to the University in 1968.

Perhaps most famously, Johnson helped organize the families that successfully sued the Champaign Unit 4 school district to create the consent decree, which forced the district to provide equitable facilities for African-American students.

Johnson died March 23 from complications resulting from a tumor in his abdomen and continued to attend council meetings even as his health failed him. Shortly after his death, Councilman Geraldo Rosales submitted a request to name a street in his honor.

Though there was much debate on which street would best honor Johnson and talk of naming a park in his honor, the measure eventually passed unanimously. Councilman Vic McIntosh said the outcome was never in doubt.

“There’s not a person up here that didn’t think John was worthy of having something named after him,” McIntosh said.

Johnson’s sisters, Gertrude Palmer, Carolyn Johnson and Ann Johnson spoke at the meeting, along with his nephew, Richard Palmer.

“I tell people they don’t know who they lost. They lost a great man,” Richard Palmer said. “(The street naming) would be a great honor, not just for my uncle but for everyone. For blacks, and for whites too.”