James Edward Woodson, Sharon Woodson-Bryant's father, was born to Mr. and Mrs. L. L. Woodson. During World War II, he served in the Fifth Army. Woodson then graduated from Washburn University, earning a Bachelor of Law in 1948 and a Juris Doctorate in 1970. He worked as a lawyer in Topeka, Kansas. He also served on the Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce, the Topeka Human Relations Commission, and on several committees of the Kansas Bar Association. Woodson was an active member of both the NAACP and the Republican party.

Woodson married Ethel Louise Ransom. Ransom attended Salina High School and graduated from John Muir High in Pasadena, California; she also graduated from Washburn University, later doing graduate work at both Washburn and the University of Kansas. She worked as a teacher in the Topeka school district. She served on the Kansas Black Republican Council, the Kansas Black American Affairs Committee, and the Bethany Hospital Auxiliary Board and was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha and Links. Some time after James E. Woodson died in 1983, Mrs. Woodson remarried and became Ethel L. Parks, remaining active in the community.

The Woodsons had two children: Sharon Louise and James Ransom. In 1965, Sharon Woodson graduated from Topeka High School; she went on to earn a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in journalism from the University of Kansas in 1969 and 1975.

Sharon Woodson-Bryant worked as a reporter in Michigan (Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor) and Florida (Tallahassee), where she published the African American newspaper Capital Outlook. She later moved to Los Angeles and was employed as a guest columnist for the L.A. Wave, where she wrote predominately on race relations and struggles in the U.S. She has also worked as a freelance writer, a lobbyist for Southern California Gas Service, vice president in public relations and government affairs for Union Bank of California, and media manager for First 5 LA, an organization committed to improving the health and well-being of children and families in Los Angeles County.