Hundreds of people from Madison and beyond gathered for a vigil to honor Michael Johnson, the influential leader of the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County who died suddenly on Sunday night.

As the evening sun cut through the trees Tuesday, mourners congregated on the patio of a workforce training and community center aimed at preparing kids of all backgrounds for life — a building that was Johnson’s dream made manifest.

Music played on a speaker besides a smiling portrait of Johnson, as speaker after speaker marked how he had touched their lives.

Corey Marionneaux, founder of the Black Men Coalition of Dane County, wept as he recounted how Johnson had changed his life.

“This brother came into my life, looked me in my eye, seen who I was, respected who I was, trusted me, built value in me, showed me he appreciated me,” he said. “This man could reach to the ghetto, he could reach to the suburbs, he could reach to the kids and adults, he could reach to the philanthropists, as well as people struggling like me, trying to figure it out.”

Johnson took over the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County in 2010, and celebrated the organization for inspiring his own trajectory from public housing in Chicago to eventually earning a masters degree.

He was credited with greatly expanding the local nonprofit’s footprint with campuses in the suburbs of Fitchburg and Sun Prairie, and with establishing partnerships in county public schools.

Speakers on Tuesday vowed to carry on Johnson’s work.

“We are not giving up,” said board member Chris Fortune. “Michael’s gone; we’re not gone.”

Johnson was also instrumental in erecting the first monument to a Black leader on state grounds anywhere in the United States. He led the efforts to install a statue of Vel Phillips, the first Black person elected to statewide office in Wisconsin, on the grounds of the state Capitol. He compared the joy of that 2024 day to his wedding day.

Johnson leaves behind a wife and children. They did not attend the vigil on Tuesday, but instead sent a statement, read, through tears, by Johnson’s friend, Anthony Cooper, a violence interrupter.

“While our hearts are surely broken, we find strength in knowing that his legacy lives on through the countless people he influenced in the Madison and Dane County community, which Michael loved extremely,” the statement read.

“I’m going to miss that brother more than y’all probably know,” Cooper added.

The evening ended with a prayer from Rev. Marcus Allen, of Mt. Zion Baptist Church, as mourners took turns lighting candles and holding them up.

“If we can light one, you can light them all,” Allen said. “Just like Michael Johnson was a fire that was contagious, so shall we be tonight.”