Mordecai Wyatt Johnson
Born	(1890-01-04)January 4, 1890 Paris, Tennessee
Died	September 10, 1976(1976-09-10) (aged 86) Washington, D.C.
Alma mater	Morehouse College Harvard University
Employer	Howard University
Known for	First African-American president of Howard University
Awards	Spingarn Medal

Mordecai Wyatt Johnson (January 4, 1890 – September 10, 1976) was an American educator and pastor. He served as the first African-American president ofHoward University, from 1926 until 1960. Johnson has been considered one of the three leading African-American preachers of the early 20th-century, along withVernon Johns andHoward Thurman.

Johnson was born on January 12, 1890, inParis, Tennessee, to parents who were former slaves. His father was Reverend Wyatt J. Johnson, a preacher and mill worker. His mother, Carolyn Freeman, was a domestic worker for one of the prominent families in town.^[1]

Johnson attended a small elementary school in his native town. Afterward, he moved toNashville, where he studied atRoger Williams University. Later he studied at Howe Institute in Memphis.

He transferred to the Atlanta Baptist College (nowMorehouse College, ahistorically black college), where he completed his secondary and undergraduate education. During his college career, he was a member of the debating team and theGlee Club, a star athlete in three sports, andquarterback of the football team. Offered a faculty position at the college upon graduation, he taughtEnglish andeconomics and served a year as acting dean. He maintained a profound interest in economics throughout his career, an interest that was apparent in some of his major speeches.

After one year of teaching, he continued his education at theUniversity of Chicago, where he received a second A.B. degree, and at theRochester Theological Seminary inRochester, New York, where he earned the B.D. degree. At Rochester he was profoundly influenced by the great "social gospel" advocate,Walter Rauschenbusch. His experiences there strongly influenced his thinking and his entire career. He also earned a Doctor of Divinity degree atHarvard University in 1923.^[2]

Johnson married Anna Ethelyn Gardner on December 25, 1916. They had five children: Carolyn Elizabeth Johnson, Mordecai Wyatt Johnson Jr., Archer Clement Johnson, William Howard Johnson, andAnna Faith Johnson.

Following a brief stint as secretary of the western region of the StudentYMCA, in 1917 he became pastor of the First Baptist Church in Charleston, West Virginia. He later founded a chapter of theNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

On June 26, 1926, at the age of 36, Johnson was unanimously elected the eleventh President ofHoward University, becoming the firstAfrican American to serve as the permanent head of that institution.^[1] Prior to his appointment Johnson had served as Professor of Economics and History atMorehouse College. He had also served as Pastor of the FirstBaptist Church inCharleston, West Virginia.

During his tenure, Johnson appointedCharles Hamilton Houston as dean of the law school, who played a significant role in dismantling theJim Crow laws.

Johnson raised millions of dollars for new buildings and for upgrading all of the schools. National honor societies, includingPhi Beta Kappa, were established on the campus of Howard.

Johnson also clashed with the Dean of Women,Lucy Diggs Slowe, as he and the Howard University Board of Trustees tried to force Dean Slowe to move out of thehouse she shared withMary Burrill and move into a building on campus in 1933.^[3]

During his administration, it was said that Howard had the greatest collection ofAfrican Americanscholars to be found anywhere. Notable scholars at Howard included:

• Alain LeRoy Locke, graduated from English and Philosophy at Harvard, and was the first African AmericanRhodes Scholar,
• Ralph Bunche, professor of political science and later aNobel Laureate;
• Charles R. Drew, who perfected the use of blood plasma;
• Percy Lavon Julian, a noted chemist; and
• Sterling Allen Brown, professor of English and notedHarlem Renaissance poet;
• Merze Tate, diplomatic scholar and first African American woman to attend theUniversity of Oxford.^[4]

Johnson brought Howard University into national prominence and served as president of Howard for 34 years, since 1926 until his retirement in 1960. In this time the enrollment at Howard University increased from 2,000 in 1926 to more than 10,000 in 1960.

Johnson was an annual speaker for the Education Night at the National Baptist Convention, a speaker at the Ford Hall Forum in Boston, and spoke alongsideMartin Luther King Jr. and others at the 1957Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. He traveled 25,000 miles a year throughout the country speaking principally on topics such as racism, segregation, and discrimination.^[5] In 1951 he was a member of the American delegation to theNATO meetings in London.

In 1929, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) awarded Johnson theSpingarn Medal (its highest honor at that time), for Johnson's ability to secure annualfederal funds to support the university's financial future.^[5]

Johnson died on September 10, 1976, at the age of 86, inWashington, D.C.

• Yenser, Thomas (editor),Who's Who in Colored America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Persons of African Descent in America, Brooklyn, New York, 1930-1931-1932 (third edition)

• 1890 births
• 1976 deaths
• Morehouse College alumni
• University of Chicago alumni
• Howard University alumni
• Harvard Divinity School alumni
• Interdenominational Theological Center alumni
• Presidents of Howard University
• 20th-century African-American academics
• People from Paris, Tennessee
• Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School alumni
• Religious leaders from Charleston, West Virginia
• 20th-century African-American educators
• 20th-century American educators
• 20th-century American academics

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