Editing Bunk Johnson (section)

== Legacy ==
Jazz historians have debated Johnson's legacy, and the extent to which his colorful reminiscences of his early career were accurate, misremembered, exaggerated, or untrue. Although in recent years, new evidence has appeared in jazz historian Vic Hobson's 2014 ''Creating Jazz Counterpoint. New Orleans, Barbershop Harmony, and the Blues'', in which is stated that Buddy Bolden's band member Willy Cornish — who is seen on the only surviving picture of the Bolden Band — affirmed Bunk Johnson as a member of the early jazz group. This puts Johnson's own statements and recordings, in which he actively recreated the Bolden tunes, in a plausible and positive light, making them of great historical and musicological importance to the study of jazz and New Orleans jazz in particular.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hobson|first=Vic|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/857288200|title=Creating jazz counterpoint : New Orleans, barbershop harmony, and the blues|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|year=2014|isbn=978-1-62674-025-9|location=Jackson|pages=3–5|oclc=857288200}}</ref>

His recordings have been reissued on CD.

Johnson was a [[Catholic Church|Catholic]], and as of 2019 an annual Jazz Mass and procession was conducted in his hometown of New Iberia, beginning at St Edward Catholic Church and ending at Johnson's gravesite.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Vaughn|first=Corey|date=2019-05-27|title=Mass and procession to cemetery honor Bunk Johnson|url=https://www.iberianet.com/news/mass-and-procession-to-cemetery-honor-bunk-johnson/article_5aeeeac4-8032-11e9-8077-87ff57234ba9.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-06-09|website=The Daily Iberian|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190527171822/https://www.iberianet.com/news/mass-and-procession-to-cemetery-honor-bunk-johnson/article_5aeeeac4-8032-11e9-8077-87ff57234ba9.html |archive-date=2019-05-27 }}</ref>

In about 1996, Bunk Johnson Park was dedicated to his memory in New Iberia, Louisiana. Twenty years later, in 2016, the park was dismantled due to criminal activity in the area.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.thedailyiberian.com/opinion/editorials/targeting-wrongs-at-bunk-park/article_eb68422c-f0af-11e1-b3f5-0019bb2963f4.html | title=Targeting wrongs at Bunk park | date=28 August 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/entertainment/2016/06/01/bunk-back-third-and-final-fete/85045782/ | title=Bunk is back for third and final fete }}</ref>

The [[Iberia Parish Library]] hosts an archival collection of Johnson's papers and a special exhibit room for Johnson.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Crook |first=Don |date=2009 |title=The Bunk Johnson Collection |url=https://iberialibrary.org/wp/special-collections/the-bunk-johnson-collection/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928034347/https://iberialibrary.org/wp/special-collections/the-bunk-johnson-collection/ |archive-date=2023-09-28 |access-date=2024-02-20 |website=Iberia Parish Library |language=en-US}}</ref>