Gregory Lee “Joey” Johnson was born in 1956 in Richmond, Indiana. He is the former national spokesman for the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade, which he joined in 1976. He was arrested for burning an American flag at the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas. He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to one year in jail and a $2,000 fine. The case was appealed all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which overturned his conviction in 1989.

When a Constitutional amendment was proposed in 1995 to outlaw flag burning, Johnson responded, “The proposed Constitutional amendment is a desperate and fascist ‘end-of-the-empire’ amendment. It’s meant to protect and exalt the flag. It’s meant to enforce the view of the U.S. over the world, whites over oppressed nationalities, men over women. It means ‘English only’, the rounding up of immigrants. It is part of the cruel ‘Contract On America’ war on the poor, blacks, youth, and working people. The flag amendment is an act of a sick and dying empire clutching at its symbols which rest on genocide and slavery. This is truer today than in 1984.”