Lyman T. Johnson

Lyman Tefft Johnson (June 12, 1906 – October 3, 1997)cite web
title = A Resolution Adjourning the House of Representatives in Loving Memory and Honor of Lyman T. Johnson
publisher = Kentucky Legislative Research Commission
date = 1997
url = http://lrc.ky.gov/recarch/97S2/HR13/bill.doc
accessdate = 2007-05-22 ] was an American educator and influential leader of racial desegregation in Kentucky. He is best known as the plaintiff whose successful legal challenge opened the University of Kentucky to African-American students in 1949.cite web
title = Living the Story: Lyman T. Johnson
publisher = Kentucky Educational Television (KET)
date = 2006
url = http://www.ket.org/civilrights/bio_ljohnson.htm
accessdate = 2007-05-22 ]

Early life and education

Born in Columbia, Tennessee in 1906, Johnson was the eighth of nine children and the grandson of former slaves.

In 1926, he received his high school diploma from the preparatory division of Knoxville College. After earning his bachelor's degree in Greek from Virginia Union University in 1930, he went on to receive a master's degree in history from the University of Michigan in 1931. He also served in the United States Navy during World War II.

He taught history, economics, and mathematics for 16 years at Louisville's Central High School before engaging the University of Kentucky in a legal test case intended to permit him to pursue further graduate study there.

Johnson was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first inter-collegiate Greek-letter organization established for African Americans.

Lawsuit

Johnson filed a federal lawsuit against the University of Kentucky in 1948, challenging the state's Day Law, the law that prohibited blacks and whites from attending the same schools.cite web
title = Lyman T. Johnson Postdoctoral Fellows
publisher = University of Kentucky
date = 2004-09-20
url = http://www.research.uky.edu/students/lymanfellows.html
accessdate = 2007-05-22 ]

His challenge was successful, which allowed him to enter UK in 1949 as a 43-year-old graduate student. Although he left UK before earning a degree, the university presented him with an honorary doctor of letters degree in 1979.

Later years

Johnson continued teaching at Central until 1966, before spending another five years in the Jefferson County Public Schools as an assistant principal at two junior high schools. After retirement from the public school system, he then spent three years in a similar administrative capacity at a Catholic high school.

He was also a member of the Jefferson County Board of Education from 1978 to 1982. Lyman T. Johnson Middle School was named in his honor in 1980.

In addition to opening the door for thousands of minority students, he also led struggles to integrate neighborhoods, swimming pools, schools, and restaurants. He also headed the Louisville chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for six years.

He died in Louisville, Kentucky in 1997 at the age of 91.

Legacy

The University of Kentucky currently offers a fellowship program in his name for African-American and older, minority graduate students at the university. There is also a postdoctoral fellowship program named in his honor. Recipients are known as Lyman T. Johnson Postdoctoral Fellows.

Within the University of Kentucky Alumni Association the African American club group is named the Lyman T. Johnson African American Alumni.

Lyman T. Johnson Traditional Middle School is a school in Louisville, Kentucky that is named in his honor.

References

External links

* [http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/A-0351/menu.html Oral history interview] by John Egerton, July 1990 (Southern Oral History Program, UNC-Chapel Hill)