Sargent Claude Johnson was born in Boston on October 7, 1887, the third of six children. His mother was Cherokee and African American and his father was of Swedish descent. Although Johnson was light enough in color to pass as Caucasian, the artist chose to identify as Black, despite racial tensions of the time.

Oraphaned of both parents at a young age, Sargent and his siblings lived briefly in Washington, DC with their maternal uncle and his young wife, African American sculptress May Howard Jackson, who helped guide the young boy's first efforts in clay modeling.

Unable to care for the children, the siblings were sent to separate orphanages in Massachusetts.

Sargent Johnson working on a frieze

Sargent left the East Coast in his mid-twenties and moved to the Bay area in 1915, in time for the Panama Pacific International Exposition. Soon after his arrival, Johnson married Pearl Lawson from Georgia, and had one daughter, Pearl Adele, in 1923. The marriage soon ended in divorce.

Johnson eventually studied art and sculpture at the California School of Fine Arts under sculptors Ralph Stackpole and Benny Bufano.