Lulu Johnson Explained

Lulu Johnson
Occupation:Historian, university administrator
Birth Name:Lulu Merle Johnson
Birth Date:14 September 1907
Birth Place:Gravity, Iowa, U.S.
Education:University of Iowa (BA, MA, PhD)
Death Date:[1]
Death Place:Millsboro, Delaware, U.S.

Lulu Merle Johnson (September 14, 1907 – October 19, 1995) was an American historian and university administrator. She was the second African-American woman to earn a PhD in history in the United States, and the first to do so in the state of Iowa.[2] P. G. Dagbovie has described Johnson as being part of the "first distinguishable coterie of formally trained black women historians" in the U.S.[3] Johnson County, Iowa, is named in honor of her, officially since September 2020.[4] [5]

Life and career

Lulu Merle Johnson was born in 1907 on a farm near the small town of Gravity in southwestern Iowa; the land had been purchased by her grandfather in 1882.[6] She moved to eastern Iowa in her late teens, and graduated from Clinton High School in 1925. She earned a BA from the University of Iowa, before going on to receive an MA in history in 1930 for a thesis entitled, "The Negro in Canada, Slave and Free."[7] Once she had earned her MA, Johnson taught history and politics at Talladega College (1930–31) and at Tougaloo College (1931–40).

Johnson worked intermittently at the University of Iowa throughout the 1930s on a PhD in history; she also undertook some graduate study at the University of Chicago.[8] She was supervised by Winfred T. Root, chair of the department, and by Harrison John Thornton. In 1941, Johnson successfully defended her doctoral dissertation, "The Problem of Slavery in the Old Northwest, 1787–1858." In doing so, she became the first African-American woman to receive a PhD from the University of Iowa, and the second African-American woman in the United States to earn a doctorate in history after Marion Thompson Wright.[9] While at the University of Iowa, Johnson received funding from the General Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation to support her doctoral research.[10] [11]

Johnson faced discrimination during her time at the University of Iowa, including being forced to take a swimming class as a requirement of her doctorate, even though she was enrolled in the history PhD program, and was not allowed to use the university swimming pool at the same time as whites.[12]

Johnson went on to teach history at historically black colleges such as Florida A&M University, and West Virginia State College, before she joined the faculty of Cheyney University of Pennsylvania in 1952.[13] There she served as a professor of history and also as dean of women students. A longtime member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, Johnson retired in 1971 to the seaside community of Millsboro, Delaware.[14] She died there in 1995.

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JB13-QTY Social Security Death Index: Lulu M Johnson
  2. Book: Dagbovie. Pero Gaglo. Carter G. Woodson in Washington,: The Father of Black History. 2014. 132. Arcadia . October 25, 2017. 9781625851642.
  3. Book: Dagbovie. P.G.. African American History Reconsidered. 2010. University of Illinois Press. 104–05.
  4. Web site: Hermiston . Lee . 2020-09-23 . Johnson County Switches Its Namesake from Slave Owner to Black Scholar . .
  5. News: Vigdor . Neil . 2021-06-25 . An Iowa County Chooses to be Named for a Black Professor, Not a Slaveowner . The New York Times . 2021-06-25.
  6. News: Mason. Ruth. First negress candidate for Ph.D. in Iowa. July 14, 2020. The Daily Iowan. July 20, 1941.
  7. Web site: Mason. Kären. Guide to the Lulu Merle Johnson papers. University of Iowa Libraries Special Collection. July 14, 2020.
  8. Web site: Program for final examination of Lulu Merle Johnson, July 23, 1941. July 14, 2020.
  9. Web site: African American Women in Iowa. African American Museum of Iowa. September 17, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304090242/http://www.blackiowa.org/education/black-history-moments/african-america-women-in-iowa/. March 4, 2016. dead.
  10. Web site: A Guide to the Rockefeller Foundation records, fellowships, fellowship recorder card. Rockefeller Archive Center. September 17, 2015.
  11. Breaux. Richard M.. The New Negro Arts and Letters Movement among Black University Students in the Midwest, 1914–1940. African Americans on the Great Plains: An Anthology. 210.
  12. News: Jackson. Sonya Y.. Lulu's Legacy. The Chicago Sun-Times. September 4, 2012.
  13. News: College and School News. September 17, 2015. The Crisis. December 1941.
  14. News: Benning. Victoria. Black pioneer began life in Gravity. July 14, 2020. The Des Moines Register. June 9, 1991.