fluence to generate opportunities that would allow
African Americans to demonstrate their “intellec-
tual parity... through the production of literature
and art.”
His untimely death in a car accident was
marked by a moving funeral at the Harlem church
of Rev. Frederick Cullen, the father of the poet
COUNTEE CULLEN. More than 2,500 people at-
tended. The pallbearers included W. C. HANDY,
Carl Van Vechten, ARTHURSPINGARN,WALTER
WHITE,L. HOLLINGSWORTHWOOD, and HARRY
BURLEIGH. In his eulogy, Gene Buck, the president
of the American Society of Composers, Authors,
and Publishers (ASCAP), remembered Johnson as
a man of “nobility, culture, infinite taste and a
burning desire for learning and tolerance that
would not cease.” Johnson was buried in the
Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Bibliography
James Weldon Johnson Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale
University.
Johnson, James Weldon. Along This Way: The Autobiog-
raphy of James Weldon Johnson,with an introduction
by Sandra Kathryn Wilson. New York: Da Capo
Press, 2000.
———. The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man.
Boston: Sherman, French, 1912; New York and
London: Knopf, 1927.
———. Black Manhattan.New York: Knopf, 1930.
———. God’s Trombones; Seven Negro Sermons in Verse.
New York: Viking, 1927.
Kellner, Bruce. Carl Van Vechten and the Irreverent
Decades.Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1968.
Levy, Eugene. James Weldon Johnson: Black Leader, Black
Voice.Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973.
“Thousands Attend Johnson’s Funeral.” New York Times,
1 July 1938, 19.
Johnson, Mordecai Wyatt (1890–1976)
The first African-American president of HOWARD
UNIVERSITY. He was born in Paris, Tennessee, to
the Reverend Wyatt Johnson, a formerly enslaved
mill engine operator, and Caroline Freeman John-
son, a domestic and housewife. Johnson began
college studies at the Atlanta Baptist College, now
MOREHOUSE COLLEGE. He studied with BEN-
JAMINBRAWLEYand so excelled as a student that
the college hired him to teach immediately follow-
ing his graduation. He earned a second bachelor’s
degree from the UNIVERSITY OFCHICAGOfollow-
ing two summers of study there in 1912 and 1913.
He then earned a bachelor of divinity in 1916
from the Rochester Theological Seminary. In 1921
he began one year of studies at Harvard Divinity
School and was awarded a master’s degree in sa-
cred theology in 1922.
The same year in which he completed his di-
vinity studies at Rochester, Johnson married Anna
Ethelyn Gardner. The couple, who went on to live
in Charleston, West Virginia, had five children:
Carolyn, Mordecai Jr., Archer, William, and Faith.
In Charleston, Johnson established the first branch
of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE AD-
VANCEMENT OFCOLOREDPEOPLE.
Johnson was only 33 years old when Howard
University awarded him an honorary doctor of di-
vinity degree. Three years later, in 1926, he was
offered the prestigious post of president of the
historic institution. He served for 34 years. De-
spite some faculty resistance to his administrative
style and lack of advanced academic credentials,
Johnson transformed the institution into an intel-
lectual powerhouse. During his tenure, the fac-
ulty not only included Rhodes scholars such as
ALAINLOCKEbut also Nobel Prize winners and
internationally renowned scientists, historians,
economists, and writers. The intellectual elite at
Howard included professors Ralph Bunche, T.
MONTGOMERY GREGORY,RAYFORD LOGAN,
Charles Drew, and Charles Wesley. ZORANEALE
HURSTON, one of several successful graduates of
Howard, described Johnson as a man with “great
respect for established authority” and “tremen-
dous prestige with both white and black in high
places.”
Johnson received a SPINGARNMEDALin 1929
as a result of his successful efforts to revitalize
Howard University and to secure its future as a
premier institution of higher learning. He retired
from Howard in 1960.Bibliography
Logan, Rayford. Howard University: The First Hundred
Years, 1867–1967.New York: New York University
Press, 1969.Johnson, Mordecai Wyatt 291