Dr. Josie R. Johnson, “The First Lady of Minnesota Civil Rights”
Dr. Johnson’s Biography (Read the Star Tribune Article)
Dr. Josie R. Johnson is a pioneering civil rights leader whose lifelong commitment to justice, education, and community empowerment has shaped Minnesota and the nation. As an organizer, advocate, and policy trailblazer, she played key roles in advancing fair housing, expanding voting rights, and strengthening civic engagement during the height of the civil rights movement. Her decades of leadership in higher education—including her historic role as the first African American Regent at the University of Minnesota—reflect her unwavering belief in the power of learning to transform lives. Dr. Johnson’s legacy continues to inspire students to lead with courage, compassion, and a deep sense of social responsibility.
Dr. Josie Johnson was active in the civil rights movement since her teen years when she and her father gathered signatures for an anti-poll tax petition in her hometown in Texas. In 1963, Johnson led the Minnesota delegation to the historic March on Washington. A year later, she and a multi-racial group of women went on a secret fact-finding mission to Jackson Mississippi. Their goal was to witness first-hand what was happening to African Americans who were trying to register to vote. Dr. Johnson fought against the Voter ID initiative in Minnesota and continues to speak out in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent decision to gut the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Dr. Johnson is one of Minnesota’s most celebrated civil rights leaders. Called a “trailblazer” and “The First Lady of Minnesota Civil Rights,” her distinguished career spans positions as a lobbyist, community and campaign organizer, educator and administrator, and an advisor to political leaders. She was the Director of the Minneapolis Urban League, a professor of Education and Public Policy at the University of Minnesota and completed her career as a principal at a school serving primarily low-income African American students.
Dr. Johnson earned a B.A. in Sociology from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a M.A. and Ed. D at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The Bartling Scholarship 