Interview with Lyman T. Johnson, March 30, 1979

Interview Summary

Johnson describes how he financed his study at Virginia Union University by working on campus as a carpenter and a painter. He describes his siblings and their educations and careers. He talks about having to help run the home from a young age, learning to cook and grow crops for food. He discusses class and racial differences in the South in the early 1900s, and discusses the many places he was not allowed to go as an African American. He speaks specifically about racial discrimination in healthcare. He discusses reactions to integration. He discusses the differences between racism in the North and racism in the South. He talks about the connections between racism and capitalism. Johnson talks about being recruited into the Navy to teach illiterate black men to read and write, so they could be sent overseas. He discusses his views on war. He discusses civil disobedience.

Interview Keyword

Student life Passing (racial identity) Class division Access to culture Discrimination in healthcare Healthcare in rural areas Busing Capitalism Board of Education Civil disobedience Race relations in the rural South Race relations in the North vs. the South

Interview LC Subject

African Americans--Southern States African Americans--Education (Higher) African Americans--Economic conditions African Americans--Families African Americans--Social life and customs African Americans--Education Race discrimination African Americans--Segregation African Americans--Social conditions--To 1964 Integration United States--Armed Forces--African Americans Civil rights demonstrations Segregation in transportation

Interview Rights

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Interview Usage

Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.