Johnson County will dedicate Dr. Lulu Merle Johnson Plaza during a ceremony tomorrow morning in Iowa City. Johnson was the first black woman in Iowa to earn a PhD, which she received from the University of Iowa.
The service will include unveiling a statue of Johnson, plus plaques that tell stories of black history in Iowa. Johnson’s great niece Sonya Jackson says she’s been trying for decades to bring Johnson more recognition.
“I want people to just sort of stand in her wake and take in the accomplishment,” Jackson says. “I don’t know how many statues of black people there are in this country but I think she’s one of few, so I think that’s powerful.”
Five years ago, Johnson County leaders decided to name the county after Lulu Johnson, instead of former Vice President Richard Johnson who had no connection to the area. That Johnson was V-P under Martin Van Buren from 1837 to 1841. Iowa became a state in 1846.
The project’s historian Rebecca Conard hopes the new plaza’s statue and plaques will offer the public plenty of information about Lulu Johnson.
“But I think if they take away only a visual understanding that Iowa is not this all-white place and it never has been–if they can take that away, I think that’s really important.”
Johnson was a historian whose course called “The Negro in American Life” helped catapult the Black Studies discipline in academia.
Conard and Jackson discussed the project on the Iowa Public Radio program “Talk of Iowa.” The ceremony will take place near the county administrative building.
(Eliza Billingham, Iowa Public Radio)