title
PROPOSED RESOLUTION
REMEMBERING DISTINGUISHED AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORIAN AND BELOVED "GRIOT" DORIA DEE JOHNSON
WHEREAS, Doria Dee Johnson, a woman whose exceptional leadership and great body of scholarly work examining the African American experience will long be remembered and treasured. In her short life she educated thousands and when she died, far too soon, at age the age of 56 she left behind countless friends, family and an international community enriched for having known her; and
WHEREAS, Doria Dee Johnson was born in Evanston Illinois, the first of three children of Helen and Charles Johnson. Her exceptional talent revealed itself very early in her life. As a young student, she attended a Crawford family reunion near Abbeville, South Carolina where she learned the tragic history of her great-great-grandfather, Anthony Crawford, who had been the victim of lynching. His story was a part of a much broader, history of lynching in America, a vicious tool of racial control to suppress black civil rights. Doria established the Anthony Crawford foundation in his name; his heart-rending story and those of so many others provided the focus to her life's work. On October 21, 2016, on the Centennial of his tragic death, she lead a pilgrimage of scholars, justice advocates, faith leaders and artists from across the country to a two day event entitled "Justice for Anthony Crawford, Freedom School and Speak Out." She worked with Public Interest Attorney Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative to establish one of the few historical markers in the country dedicated to lynching, marking the site of her great-grandfather's death; and
WHEREAS, Doria Dee Johnson spent her academic and professional life examining the deeply complex and troubled story of the African American experience; she received her Bachelor of General Studies in History with honors from Roosevelt University and later received her Master of Arts degree in Afro-American Studies fro...
Click here for full text