In 1953, Joseph A. Johnson, Jr. returned to the campus of Vanderbilt University after almost 13 years. This time, instead of working as a groundskeeper, he returned as the university's first African American student. The path, from his first arrival to his second, was complex and courageous. Nevertheless, in 1954, Johnson became the first black to graduate from Vanderbilt University. He went on to become the first to receive a PhD from the university (1958), and the first to serve on the Board of Trusts. Johnson also became a Bishop in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1984, five years after his death, the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center was dedicated on Vanderbilt’s campus. While Johnson’s extraordinary accomplishments are known to many, little has been written about the details of his life. This project seeks to fill that void by producing a book-length biography that will provide a narrative of Johnson's ancestry, life, and times; chronicle his experience as the first black student at Vanderbilt; place his life and ministry in the historical context of American Methodism's divisions over race; outline his contributions to black theology and civil rights; and explain the significance of his legacy to the church today. By revisiting the church's complex racial past, this research project will further contemporary conversations on racial reconciliation and cooperation. This research project provides the opportunity to, in the words of Confucius, “Study the past if you would define the future.”

For more information, visit www.bishopjosephjohnson.org.