Movita Johnson-Harrell (born April 21, 1966) is an American politician from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

who served as a Democratic member of the

Pennsylvania House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts. It ...

for the 190th district from March to December 2019. She was the first female

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. She resigned after pleading guilty to various criminal acts related to a charity she worked for. She was sentenced to 3 months in jail followed by 8.5 months on house arrest, 11 months on parole, and 2 years probation.

Early life and education

Johnson-Harrell was raised in poverty in a family that suffered from generations of substance abuse. She received support from

welfare Welfare may refer to: Philosophy *Well-being (happiness, prosperity, or flourishing) of a person or group * Utility in utilitarianism * Value in value theory Economics * Utility, a general term for individual well-being in economics and decision ...

and lived in

public housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

. She earned an

associate's degree An associate degree or associate's degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of academic qualification above a high school diploma and below a bachelor's degree. ...

in behavioral health in 1999. She also earned a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in applied science in 2002 and a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in social work from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in 2004.

Career

Johnson-Harrell worked as supervisor of victim services for the

Philadelphia District Attorney The office of the District Attorney of Philadelphia is the largest prosecutor's office in the state of Pennsylvania and oversees a jurisdiction that includes more than 1.5 million citizens of both the city and county of Philadelphia. The curre ...

's office. She is the founder of the CHARLES Foundation (Creating Healthy Alternatives Results in Less Emotional Suffering) which was established in 2011 after the mistaken identity shooting death of her 18-year-old son, Charles André Johnson. The CHARLES foundation is focused on improving the lives of young people, their neighborhoods and "common-sense" gun control legislation to reduce violence.

Pennsylvania House of Representatives

Johnson-Harrell was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 190th district on March 12, 2019 during a special election held after Vanessa Lowery Brown resigned due to her conviction on corruption and bribery charges. She was sworn into office on March 25, 2019. During her swearing in, she made headlines after state Representative

Stephanie Borowicz Stephanie Paige Borowicz (born 1977) is an American politician currently serving as a Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 76th district since 2019. Early life and education Borowicz was born on March 23, 1977, ...

made a Christian prayer that invoked Jesus 13 times, praised Trump, praised Israel, and said, "''God forgive us — Jesus — we’ve lost sight of you, we’ve forgotten you, God, in our country, and we’re asking you to forgive us, Jesus.''" Johnson-Harrel criticized this as "weaponized prayer" and as an example of

Islamophobia Islamophobia is the irrational fear of, hostility towards, or hatred against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general. Islamophobia is primarily a form of religious or cultural bigotry; and people who harbour such sentiments often stereot ...

Criminal charges

In December 2019, Johnson-Harrell pled guilty to charges of

perjury Perjury (also known as forswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an insta ...

, tampering with public records, theft by unlawful taking and

theft Theft (, cognate to ) is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shor ...

by deception and contributions of corporations related to her personal use of $500,000 over the course of a decade from a non-profit organization Motivation Education and Consultation Associates. She announced that she would resign from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives due to these charges. In August 2020, Johnson-Harrell was released from prison to begin serving house arrest.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson-Harrell, Movita 1966 births 21st-century African-American politicians 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century Muslims African-American state legislators in Pennsylvania 21st-century African-American women politicians American community activists American gun control activists Muslims from Pennsylvania Living people Democratic Party members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Politicians from Philadelphia Pennsylvania politicians convicted of crimes University of Pennsylvania alumni Women state legislators in Pennsylvania 20th-century African-American politicians 20th-century African-American women politicians 20th-century American women politicians 21st-century members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly Politicians convicted of embezzlement African-American Muslims American female criminals American Muslim activists