The woman with the gavel: As House elected a speaker, America was watching the House clerk

At Sunday services, Cheryl Johnson sits in the back pew.

She enjoys the service, attentive, unassuming, at 19th Street Baptist Church, one of the oldest Black Baptist institutions in Washington, D.C. She serves on the board. She raises money for a pediatric clinic in Haiti.

She volunteers at a civic organization that cultivates and mentors new leaders, teaching principles of faith that can find nonpartisan common ground.

The rest of the week, for the past four years, she works her day job, as clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.

So for those who watched a leaderless House of Representatives convene for the first week of the new year, the irony was unmistakable, but so was the idealism.

As factions of Republicans, newly in the majority, fought savagely to appoint a new speaker, the House seemed to buckle. In January 2021, it had seen an assault on democracy. Now, in January 2023, it had no speaker to hold the gavel.

But it had Cheryl Johnson. Through 15 votes, she rapped the gavel as the essential leader of the nation's larger representative body.

And where there could not be nonpartisan common ground, there would be order.

Through 15 votes, America heard Johnson speak, remind the members of the rules that still bound them. To most who saw her on C-SPAN or Twitter, she was a new face. To those who knew her best, she was the most important thing they saw.

"I think when we look back historically on this moment," said the Rev. Darryl Roberts, senior pastor at 19th Street Baptist, "we will be able to say we've made it through it because of leaders like our clerk Cheryl Johnson."

Updates: Republican Kevin McCarthy clinches House speaker vote; members sworn in

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A lifetime for this moment

She did not come to hold the gavel by chance.

Though the chaos of the 118th Congress may be unprecedented in modern times – no such fight for the speakership has been seen since before the Civil War – Johnson's trip to the head of the House is one she has prepared for all her life.

Johnson attended the University of Iowa, where she majored in journalism and communications. She earned a law degree from Howard University and completed the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government senior management program.

Former Missouri congressman William Lacy Clay Jr., who served for 20 years in the House before losing his seat in 2020, said he has been friends with Johnson since they met as students at Howard University law school decades ago. There, he was struck by her intelligence.

“She really became like a member of our family," Clay told USA TODAY on Friday as the dizzying series of votes continued. After graduating law school, he said, "she went to work for my dad” – Clay Sr., himself a House member who represented his Missouri district for more than 30 years.

Johnson later worked for the Smithsonian Institution, playing a key role in the 2016 opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and serving as a leader in government relations, said Linda St. Thomas, chief Smithsonian spokesperson who worked with her.

That often meant working closely with members of Congress.

“She’s unflappable,” St. Thomas said. “And she’s got a great sense of humor. But I don’t think she can show that up on that podium.”

Unflappable seemed a job requirement starting in 2019, when she became the 36th House clerk under Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in what would prove a dramatic tenure. First, impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. Then the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, when she along with the membership had to flee the House floor for a secure location, Clay said.

When she's not on the House floor, she's honoring John Lewis, the late civil rights icon and longtime Georgia congressman.

Through the Washington, D.C.-based Faith & Politics Institute, she works to achieve the goal of building a nationwide network of emerging, civic-minded people – undergraduate and graduate students and young corporate leaders – who will create change through Martin Luther King Jr.'s and Lewis's principles of nonviolence and community-oriented activism.

Paul Alagero, chief operating officer of the Faith & Politics Institute, watched Johnson take command of the House proceedings, calling it "amazing to see."

"It actually brings a smile to my face to watch her in this role," Alagero said, "and it makes me appreciate what is right about the country."

“No one could have envisioned this happening the way it has unfolded,” Clay said. “She's eminently qualified for where history has found her. She's prepared pretty much all of her life to be in this role."

'Upholding order'

The first House clerk was elected in 1789. In the 234 years since, it has been a little-acknowledged role.

The clerks of the House certify the passage of bills and deliver formal messages to the Senate, and their voices rarely emerge other than in brief, historic moments. The speaker of the House, installed by the majority party, calls the shots.

And so it was on Thursday – after Pelosi and the Democrats were out of power, after two days and six rounds of voting had failed to secure a new speaker – that shots were being taken. Johnson stepped forward to address the members-elect. Without a speaker, they could not yet even be sworn in.

“Members-elect should refrain from engaging in personalities toward other members-elect,” she said. “The chair appreciates the cooperation of members-elect in respecting and upholding order and decorum in the House.”

Thursday stretched into Friday, and the clerk remained, upholding order and decorum, and sitting not in the back row but near the top of the dais.

Her work did not go unnoticed. Twice, lawmakers gave her a standing ovation while thanking her for her service. A few even shouted "Johnson for speaker!"

Clay, the longtime member and friend, had spoken with her earlier in the week. Even then, security had been heightened around her, he said.

“When this is all over, and they pick a new clerk," he said he told her, "please take some time off."

More: A guide to a House speaker deadlock not seen for a century

A new Congress

By late Friday, all was not over. America was watching the unusually revealing camera angles that panned and zoomed to find faceoffs and near-scuffles on the House floor.

Roberts, the pastor, was watching Johnson.

"No matter what divisions are taking place in the House, no matter what disagreements, and even though there's been an unprecedented battle to appoint a speaker, there has been a certain level of decorum of honor and grace maintained in that chamber at all times," Roberts said. "Because Americans are looking to our elected officials for leadership, to solve problems, to move our nation forward, she understands that if that even in the midst of that chaos, there has to be steady leadership."

He had such respect for her role, he declined to speak to USA TODAY about her without her permission.

So he called her Friday during an extended break in the action.

He said his primary goal was to ensure that Johnson knew her church home and family was a safe and supportive space; that her pastor wouldn't talk out of turn unless he was granted her blessing.

Johnson returned his call and gave her permission – with her own message to pass along.

Whatever chaos had consumed America, it seemed, Johnson had no doubt about her own path.

"She said, 'Tell them that I am a good Christian, and I'm going to heaven,'" Roberts said. "And I would ditto that."

Friday stretched into Saturday, and a 15th round of voting finally brought the process to a close.

Kevin McCarthy of California was elected. The vote was tallied.

Johnson banged the gavel – one quiet voice, one lifetime of service, one moment that changed America.

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Suzette Hackney is a national columnist. Reach her on Twitter: @suzyscribe. Chris Kenning is a national correspondent. Reach him on Twitter: @chris_kenning.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cheryl Johnson, clerk of the House, was the woman America was watching