Roll Call Tribute

Singleton & Sons Funeral Home services notice
627 New Orleans
Hempstead, TX 77445
Telephone: (979) 826-2425
Email: info@singletonandsonsfh.com
Website: www.singletonandsonsfh.com

Dr. James E. Johnson
June 28, 1926 - October 6, 2017

Dr. James E. Johnson of Prairie View, Texas passed away on Friday October, 6, 2017.
The Family request in Lieu of Flowers, Please make donations to the Cancer Research Foundation


Viewing

OCT 13. 04:00 PM - 07:00 PM

Singleton & Sons Funeral Home
627 New Orleans
Hempstead, TX, US, 77445
info@singletonandsonsfh.com
http://www.singletonandsonsfh.com


Funeral Service

OCT 14. 11:00 AM

Johnson-Phillip All Faiths Chapel
Campus of Prairie View A&M University
Prairie View, TX, US, 77446


Omega Service

OCT 14. 10:45 AM

Johnson-Phillip All Faiths Chapel
Campus of Prairie View A&M University
Prairie View, TX, US, 77446
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
http://today.tamu.edu/2017/10/17/first-african-american-student-to-earn-doctorate-from-texas-am-dies-at-91/

TEXAS A&M TODAY
Thursday, October 19, 2017

First African-American Student To Earn Doctorate From Texas A&M Dies At 91
October 17, 2017

By Sam Peshek, Texas A&M University Marketing and Communications
James E. Johnson, believed to be the first African-American to earn a doctorate from Texas A&M University, died at the age of 91 on Oct. 6, according to his family.

Johnson grew up and attended school in Rockdale and was accepted into Prairie View A&M in 1944, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in education. During that time, he was drafted into the Armed Forces and performed police duties in the Army until he was honorably discharged in 1948. He returned to Prairie View in 1948 after his discharge and finished his bachelor’s degree.

Between teaching vocational agriculture for Bryan ISD, raising a family alongside his wife Katie Francis Thomas and working his farm land, he found time to earn a master’s degree from Prairie View in 1962.

Johnson said in a 2013 interview archived by the Baylor University Institute for Oral History that he had applied to Texas A&M in College Station multiple times from the 1940s through the 1960s, but was turned away because of segregation.

Johnson applied again and was finally admitted at Texas A&M after the school was integrated, and earned his doctorate in education in 1967.

He returned to Prairie View in 1968 to join the Prairie View A&M faculty and later transferred to Texas Southern University in Houston, where he retired.

###

Media contact: Sam Peshek, 979-845-4680, sam.peshek@tamu.edu