Cedric Johnson: What political changes did Black activism produce?
The origin of Cedric Johnson’s scholarly work on the output of Black activism is Holy Ghost Catholic Church in south Louisiana. His upbringing in an activist Black church in the 1970s and ’80s defined his formative years as he watched Black leaders replace a previously white-dominated local government.
That experience led Johnson to his work as a political scientist researching and teaching about modern Black political activism and leadership. He has written four books, scores of scholarly articles and is honored this year as a Social Sciences Distinguished Researcher.
“All the dissertation work I did and my first book are all about the period that preceded or coincided with my childhood: the 1960s transformation of the country, the legal defeat of Jim Crow, the restoration of black citizenship rights, and the beginnings of real Black political power,” Johnson said. “That was really the first leg of my career, focusing on Black power as a movement, but also the huge impact it had on African American political life.”
Johnson’s work looks beyond the immediate victories in Black activism at what that involvement produced. His book “Revolutionaries to Race Leaders: Black Power and the Making of African American Politics,” published in 2007, dug deep to question what tangible changes were made with each victory of the civil rights and Black power movements.
The New Yorker said Johnson’s most recent book, “After Black Lives Matter,” published in 2023, “should be commended both for the clarity of its message and the bravery of its convictions.” In it, Johnson tackles overarching issues in policing and mass imprisonment, framing them as a result of working-class alienation and joblessness in a capitalist economy. This work was also translated into Spanish.
His latest research projects take him back to his youth in south Louisiana. His father was a photographer, and Johnson’s young life was spent navigating a darkroom. Now, he is focusing his research on two photographers: Gordon Parks and LeRoy Henderson.
Parks, a well-known Black photographer and filmmaker, documented social justice, poverty, race relations and civil rights from the 1940s to ’70s before directing the film “Shaft.”
Henderson is less known. “He photographed many important developments within Black political and cultural life during the ’70s that are forgotten in some ways,” Johnson said.
Johnson said some corners of Black studies tend to focus on writers, traditional intellectuals and orators and less on visual artists, and people who documented the changing political scene.
“Gordon Parks is one of the most well-known Black photographers ever, but there’s relatively little academic work about him,” Johnson said. “There are tons of books on W.E.B. Du Bois, and there’s all sorts of literature on other figures. But Gordon Parks is kind of slighted, so we’re trying to correct some of that.”
Johnson added that the new direction his research has taken him breathes enthusiasm into his teaching.
He recently lectured on Parks in a class. “It’s something different than what I’ve been doing, so there’s more excitement that I’m bringing to it that is a bit more contagious for the students than things that I’ve been doing for decades,” Johnson said.
