The following article summarizes the original event which is listed below the summary.
A leader exemplary of humanity and love
Dr. Josie Johnson was the featured speaker at the UMRA Forum on September 29, 2020. During this well-attended event, she spoke about how racial injustice and systemic racism have affected African Americans since their forced importation into what is now America.
Their culture, way of life and desires, particularly the value they attached to education, were devalued during slavery, and have continued to be suppressed until today in many and varied ways. While there have been improvements in status and opportunity over the years—one major event being the election of President Obama, something Johnson never thought she would see—the elements of social injustice and systemic racism continue today.
Throughout this eon, the inner strength, spirituality, and perseverance of Black people have sustained them with an inner hope for continued progress, Dr. Johnson said. She emphasized the need for a brotherhood/sisterhood community where people of all colors are respected and engaged in the fellowship of humanity.
Achieving a just community
The pathway to this is through engaging in conversation and dialog, wherein one learns to listen carefully, to ask questions to be sure one understands what is being conveyed, and then to reflect on what has transpired. Such a process provides the basis for the hope of achieving a just community.
Dr. Johnson’s message and delivery were inspiring and a reflection both of her life-long struggle and of her leadership stature that is exemplary of humanity and love.
She is the essence of hope for the future, even in these troubling times. She urged everyone to vote in the upcoming election, and to find and read the works of outstanding Black scholars.
—Frank Cerra, MD, UMRA president
Author, activist, Regent Emerita Josie Johnson to join us "in conversation"
Tue, September 29 2020, 12pm
Event to be held via Zoom.
Josie Johnson, EdD, chronicles her life as a civil rights fighter in her memoir, Hope in the Struggle, published by University of Minnesota Press in 2019. Much of her “gracious fighting” for civil rights (so characterized by Vice President Walter Mondale, among others) occurred in Minnesota. Her contributions are immeasurable.
Civil rights icon Vernon Jordan has called her “the Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman of our time.”
UMRA looks forward to welcoming Dr. Johnson and to being “in conversation” with her, as she likes to say, for our September 29 Forum at 12 noon via Zoom, to learn about her life, her legacy, and her hopes for the future of the civil rights struggle.
Laura Bloomberg, dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, will introduce Dr. Johnson for this hour-long Zoom webinar.
In the 1960s, Johnson worked as a professional lobbyist for the passage of bills concerning discrimination in housing and employment. Johnson is hopeful and a positive, inspiring leader. She served as acting director of the Minneapolis Urban League and was a Minneapolis mayoral aide during the African American unrest and challenges in 1968.
Her memoir tells of the ways that white supremacy has impacted Black people in Minnesota. Systemic racial bias is clearly addressed. She is hopeful and a positive, inspiring leader.
An important voice for the University
Known to many UMRA members as “Josie,” she has had a long relationship with the University. She worked with other Black activists to create the Afro-American Studies Department (now the Department of African American & African Studies) and was one of its first faculty members. Appointed to the Board of Regents in 1971, she became an increasingly important voice for the University.
She directed the All-University Forum and in 1992 was named associate vice president for minority affairs. In 1998, the University honored her lifelong work with the establishment of the Josie Robinson Johnson Human Rights and Social Justice Award. And in 2018, the Humphrey School established the Josie Robinson Johnson Fellowship to support graduate students with interest in addressing racial inequities and injustice.
UMRA is proud that Dr. Johnson received a Professional Development Grants for Retirees award to support the publication of her memoir. In her memoir, Dr. Johnson recalls the racism, prejudice, and injustice she experienced growing up in Texas and the way she developed a sense of responsibility to change the system. Her parents graduated from a historically Black college near Houston. They were active in the community, and Johnson recalls going with her father to collect signatures in opposition to a poll tax. He worked as a waiter on the railroad.
She earned a BA in sociology from Fisk University in Nashville and an MA and EdD from the University of Massachusetts–Amhurst.
UMRA is proud that Dr. Johnson received a 2016–17 Professional Development Grants for Retirees award to support the publication of her memoir. Please register so you don’t miss this very special forum.
—Janice Hogan-Schiltgen, member, UMRA Grants Committee
Upcoming Events
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