Marie Johnson-Calloway was born Marie Edwards on April 10, 1920, in Pimlico, Maryland. Johnson-Calloway attended an all girls’ high school in Baltimore, Maryland, and received her teaching certificate from Coppin Teachers College in Baltimore in 1939. Receiving her B.A. degree from Morgan State University in 1952, Johnson-Calloway would later earn her M.F.A. degree from San Jose State University in California. In 1975, Johnson-Calloway received her doctoral equivalency degree from San Francisco State University.

During the early 1950s, Johnson-Calloway traveled around the United States with her first husband, U.S. Air Force doctor Arthur Johnson. While Johnson was stationed in Alaska, Johnson-Calloway held her first art exhibit. Aft...