MINNEAPOLIS — Dr. Josie Johnson is a well-known, educator, activist, community organizer and civil rights pioneer with over seven decades of experience. Johnson, born in 1930 in Texas, has been an activist in Minneapolis since the late 1950s.
“I was very blessed to grow up in an environment in which Black people were proud of who they were and did not forget the struggle of the ancestors and try to continue it,” said Dr. Josie Johnson.
She was the first African American to serve on the University of Minnesota's Board of Regents. She also helped create the school's Office of the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, focusing on minority affairs and diversity.
At 91 years old, Johnson has lived through the painful moments in America’s history.
Moments still felt today.
“I’m very troubled about where we are right now,” said Dr. Josie. “When I think about the effort of our ancestors and the young people who try to alert us about what’s going on and how it’s impacted their sense of the world. I’m very troubled."
In 2020, the murder of George Floyd put a spotlight on racism, justice and policing in the United States.
This has been followed by the recent banning of books in schools and libraries that focus on sexual and racial identity and debates surrounding Critical Race Theory, mostly rooted in misinformation.
"What's worried me is the effort of the majority group to minimize what African-American people have done historically," said Dr. Johnson. "Right now, I am so troubled, I don't think I've seen this great effort to minimize, and I know that it's the experience of January 6th and the effort people made then of trying to tell a different story, and modeling what it means to be abusive to a system, the Constitution, a building. I never thought I'd live long enough to see that type of destruction," said Dr. Johnson. "There's an effort to change history, but we have to know it, we have to tell our children. There's a tendency to listen to movies. We've got to know who we are in order to continue to lift, and not reduce."
Dr. Johnson says she’s concerned about the history of African-Americans in America that may be untold, forgotten or lost.
"At this moment, I am more worried than I've been in a while and it's because the majority group that's working hard to undermine our ancestors, that it's filtering in so many places and if we don't know it, we won't be able to stop it."
Dr. Johnson has lived through some of the country’s darkest hours and brightest moments, shared in her memoir - Hope in the Struggle.
She’s continuing to shine a light on the injustices of the past and her hope for the future.
"What I think we must do as a community of people, is to keep before us what our elders have done, from the beginning of their slavery to where we are today," said Dr. Johnson. "I think there is a tendency to forget from which our people have come and the struggle of our elders, the continuation in our elders of trying to tell our stories."
BLACK HISTORY MONTH EVENT: Saint Paul Public Library is inviting young artists (aged 7-14) to a Black History-themed drawing class at George Latimer Central Library (Children’s Library) on Saturday, February 19th from 11:00am – 12:00noon.
This FREE event open to the public is being offered in-person and on Zoom. All skill levels are welcome. Attendees must pre-register. Young artists who attend in-person will receive a limited edition Dr. Josie R. Johnson Commemorative Coloring Book to take home with them. Reserve a spot for your young artist today: https://sppl.org/black-history-commemorate/
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