Luminaries

Mordecai Wyatt Johnson

Mordecai Wyatt Johnson was an educator, clergyman, administrator, and public speaker. The son of a former slave, Johnson learned self-determination, discipline, scholarship, and integrity through his parents' example.

He graduated from Morehouse College in 1911, Harvard University Divinity School in 1922, and Gammon Theological Seminary, receiving his Doctor of Divinity degree in 1928.

Johnson was the first Black president of Howard University, serving for thirty-four years from 1926 to 1960. A controversial figure, Johnson is credited with successfully strengthening the academic program at Howard and increasing enrollment. During his tenure, faculty tripled, salaries doubled, Congressional appropriations increased to $6,000,000 annually, and Howard University's Freedmen's Hospital turned out half of the Black physicians in the country. Perhaps his greatest contribution was the development of the University's law school into the preeminent source of Civil Rights attorneys and law professors.

In 1930, Johnson served as president of the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools, which later became the American Teachers Association.