Charles Spurgeon Johnson was born on July 24, 1893 in Bristol, Virginia and, after doing odd jobs at a local barbershop, went to Richmond and graduated with a B.A degree from Virginia Union University in 1916. During his time at VUU he was president of the student council, editor of the student newspaper and played on the football team. He saw military service in World War I and in 1919 received a Bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago. Becoming a researcher for the Chicago Urban League he became interested in the new discipline of Sociology and completed his first work in that field in 1922 when he published The Negro in Chicago. As editor/critic for the publication Opportunity from 1923 to 1928 Johnson was highly instrumental in fostering and advancing the careers of many authors, artists, musicians and entertainers who became prominent in the Harlem Renaissance. He would also write such pioneering works in the field of Sociology as: The Negro in American Civilization; The Negro College Graduate; Growing Up in the Black Belt; and Patterns of Negro Segregation.

In 1928 he left journalism to become Chair of the Department of Social Sciences at Fisk University in Nashville Tennessee; and from 1946-1956 served as Fisk’s first African-American president. He passed away on October 27, 1956.

Dr. Raymond Pierre Hylton
University Historian
Virginia Union University