Johnson had served as Professor of Economics and History at Morehouse College. He had also served as Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Charleston, West Virginia. During his tenure, Johnson appointed Charles Hamilton Houston as dean of the law school, who played a significant role in dismantling the Jim Crow laws. Johnson raised millions of dollars for new buildings and for upgrading all of the schools. National honor societies, including Phi Beta Kappa, were established on the campus of Howard. During his administration, it was said that Howard had the greatest collection of African American scholars to be found anywhere. Notable scholars at Howard included: Alain LeRoy Locke, graduated from English and Philosophy at Harvard, and was the first African American Rhodes Scholar, Ralph Bunche, professor of political science and later a Nobel 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 noted Harlem Renaissance poet. 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 the Orator 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 alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and others at the 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. He traveled 25,000 miles a year throughout the country speaking principally on topics such as racism, segregation, and discrimination. In 1951 he was a member of the American delegation to the NATO meetings in London. Awards and recognitions In 1929, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) awarded Johnson the Spingarn Medal (its highest honor at that time), for Johnson's ability to secure annual federal funds to support the university's financial future. Death Johnson died on September 10, 1976, at the age of 86, in Washington, D.C. References 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 University alumni Interdenominational Theological Center alumni Presidents of Howard University Spingarn Medal winners African-American academics People from Paris, Tennessee Colgate Rochester