Johnson

Johnson, Alexander Bryan, 1786-1867, American philosopher and semanticist, b. Gosport, England. He emigrated (1801) to the United States and eventually became a wealthy banker in Utica, N.Y. Johnson anticipated many of the concerns of logical positivism and modern linguistic philosophy, but his views were ignored in his lifetime and were lost sight of for nearly a century. He held that a statement meant, for a speaker, whatever evidence he adduced or could adduce in its support: Language does not explain the world, rather the world explains language. He showed that many philosophical problems were the result of projecting distinctions of language onto nature, resulting in confusion. In addition to his philosophical works he wrote on politics, economics, and banking. His books included The Philosophy of Human Knowledge; or A Treatise on Language (1828), Religion in its Relation to Present Life (1841), The Philosophical Emperor (1841), and The Meaning of Words (1854).

Johnson, Allen, 1870-1931, American historian, b. Lowell, Mass. He was professor of history at Iowa (now Grinnell) College (1898-1905), Bowdoin College (1905-10), and Yale (1910-26). He achieved a notable success in editing the "Chronicles of America" (50 vol., 1918-21), a series both scholarly in material and popular in style, to which he contributed Jefferson and His Colleagues (Vol. XV, 1921). This success was partly responsible for his being selected as editor in chief of the Dictionary of American Biography, published under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies. Six volumes appeared before his death, setting the style and standard for the remainder of the enterprise.

Johnson, Andrew, 1808-75, 17th President of the United States (1865-69), b. Raleigh, N.C.

Early Life

His father died when Johnson was 3, and at 14 he was apprenticed to a tailor. In 1826 the family moved to E Tennessee, and Andrew soon had his own tailor shop at Greeneville. A man of no formal schooling but of great perseverance and strength of character, he was greatly aided by his wife, Eliza McCardle, whom he married in 1827; she taught him to write and improved his reading and spelling. He prospered at his trade, and the tailor shop became the favored meeting place of other artisans, laborers, and small farmers interested in discussing public affairs. The best debater in the community, Johnson became the leader of his group in opposition to the slaveholding aristocracy.

Political Career

From 1830 onward Johnson was almost continuously in public office, being alderman (1828-30) and mayor (1830-33) of Greeneville, state representative (1835-37, 1839-41), state senator (1841-43), Congressman (1843-53), governor of Tennessee (1853-57), and U.S. Senator (1857-62). As U.S. Representative and Senator, Johnson was principally interested in securing legislation to make land in the West available to homesteaders. He voted with other Southern legislators on questions concerning slavery, but after Tennessee seceded (June 8, 1861), he remained in the Senate, the only Southerner there. He vigorously supported Abraham Lincoln's administration, and in Mar., 1862, the President appointed him military governor of Tennessee with the rank of brigadier general of volunteers. His ability in filling this difficult position and the fact that he was a Southerner and a war Democrat made him an ideal choice as running mate to Lincoln on the successful Union ticket in 1864.

Presidency

On Apr. 15, 1865, following Lincoln's assassination, Johnson took the oath of office as President. His Reconstruction program (and he insisted that Reconstruction was an executive, not a legislative, function) was based on the theory that the Southern states had never been out of the Union. He therefore restored civil government in the ex-Confederate states as soon as it was feasible. Because he was not prepared to grant equal civil rights to blacks and because he did not press for the wholesale disqualification for office of Confederate leaders, he was roundly denounced by the radical Republicans who, led by Thaddeus Stevens, set out to undo Johnson's work on the convening of the 39th Congress in Dec., 1865.

In Apr., 1866, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act over Johnson's veto, and his political power began to decline sharply. The remainder of his administration saw one humiliation after another. His "swing around the circle" in the congressional elections of 1866 was unsuccessful. Baited by mobs organized by the radicals and slandered by the press, he struck out at his enemies in such harsh terms that he did his own cause much harm. On Mar. 2, 1867, the radicals passed over his veto the First Reconstruction Act and the Tenure of Office Act.

When Johnson insisted upon his intention to force out of office his Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, whom he rightly suspected of conspiring with the congressional leaders, the radical Republicans sought to remove the President. Their first attempt failed (Dec., 1867), but on Feb. 24, 1868, the House passed a resolution of impeachment against him even before it adopted (Mar. 2-3) 11 articles detailing the reasons for it. Most important of the charges, which were purely political, was that he had violated the Tenure of Office Act in the Stanton affair. On Mar. 5 the Senate, with Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presiding, was organized as a court to hear the charges. The President himself did not appear. In spite of the terrific pressure brought to bear on several Senators, the court narrowly failed to convict; the vote, on the 11th article (May 16) and on the second and third articles (May 26), was 35 to 19, one short of the constitutional two thirds required for removal.

Although the problems of Reconstruction dominated Johnson's administration, there were important achievements in foreign relations, notably the purchase (1867) of Alaska, negotiated by Secretary of State William H. Seward. Johnson's name figured in the balloting at the Democratic convention of 1868, but he did not actively seek the nomination. In 1875, on his third attempt to resume public office, he was returned to the Senate from Tennessee, but died a few months after taking his seat.

Johnson, Cave, 1793-1866, American political leader, b. Robertson co., Tenn. He practiced law in his native state and served (1829-37, 1839-45) in the U.S. House of Representatives. Johnson gave active support to James K. Polk in the presidential campaign of 1844 and served (1845-49) as Postmaster General in Polk's cabinet, introducing postage stamps in the U.S. postal system. He later became (1853) a circuit judge in Tennessee. During the Civil War he opposed secession but afterward supported the Confederacy.

Johnson, Eastman, 1824-1906, American portrait and genre painter, b. Lovell, Maine. He studied with a lithographer in Boston and later in Düsseldorf, then for almost four years at The Hague, where he was greatly influenced by the 17th-century Dutch masters. In 1855 Johnson returned to the United States and in 1860 settled in New York City. His fame rests primarily upon his skillfully executed genre pictures, such as Old Kentucky Home (N.Y. Public Lib.) and Corn Husking at Nantucket (Metropolitan Mus.). After 1885, however, he devoted himself to portraiture. Among his sitters were Presidents Hayes, Cleveland, and Harrison, as well as Cornelius Vanderbilt, Emerson, and Longfellow.

Johnson, Edward, 1881-1959, Canadian tenor and operatic manager, b. Guelph, Ont. As Eduardo di Giovanni, he sang in Italian opera houses (1912-19). In 1920 he joined the Chicago Opera Company and in 1922, the Metropolitan. In 1935 he became general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, retiring in 1950. He was succeeded by Rudolf Bing.

Johnson, Emily Pauline, 1862-1913, Canadian poet, b. near Brantford, Ont.; daughter of an indigenous chief and his English wife. Although she had little formal training, Johnson's early poems praising native life were highly popular in recitals, and in 1892 she began a series of successful tours through the United States and England. Her poems, noted for their passion and dramatic intensity, appeared in White Wampum (1895), Canadian Born (1903), and Flint and Feather (1913), her collected poems. She also published a volume of tales of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest entitled Legends of Vancouver (1911).

Johnson, Emory Richard, 1864-1950, American economist, b. Waupun, Wis., Ph.D. Univ. of Pennsylvannia, 1893. He joined the faculty of the Univ. of Pennsylvania in 1893 and was dean of its Wharton School of Finance and Commerce from 1919 to 1933. He served on several government commissions as a transportation expert and wrote many books on the subject.

Johnson, Eyvind, 1900-1976, Swedish novelist and short-story writer. After working as a laborer in the north of Sweden, Johnson moved to Stockholm in 1919 and began to write. He is best known outside Sweden for his cycle of four autobiographical novels entitled Romanen om Olov [the novel about Olov] (1934-37), which is noted for its extraordinary psychological penetration. Johnson wrote more than 40 works, including the novels Grupp Krilon (1941), Krilon själv (1943), Return to Ithaca (1946, tr. 1952), The Days of His Grace (1960, tr. 1968), and Livsdagen long (1964) and the collection of short stories Sju liv (1944). Considered one of the foremost Swedish writers of the 20th cent., Johnson shared the 1974 Nobel Prize in Literature with his countryman Harry Martinson.

Johnson, Guy, c.1740-1788, Loyalist leader in colonial New York, b. Ireland. He emigrated to America as a boy and married (1763) a daughter of Sir William Johnson, whom he succeeded as superintendent of Indian affairs in 1774. He had served in the French and Indian War and had acted as a deputy of Sir William after 1762. In the American Revolution he helped to keep most of the Iroquois loyal to the British. He made his headquarters (1779-81) at Niagara and with his deputy, John Butler, directed Loyalist raids against the patriot frontier settlements. He was succeeded as superintendent of Indian affairs by Sir John Johnson in 1782.

Johnson, Herschel Vespasian, 1812-80, U.S. political leader, b. Burke co., Ga. Admitted to the bar in 1834, he filled (1848-49) an unexpired Senate term before serving as circuit court judge (1849-53) and Democratic governor of Georgia (1853-57). A proponent of both states' rights and unionism, Johnson in 1860 ran unsuccessfully for the vice presidency with Stephen A. Douglas against Abraham Lincoln. Although he opposed secession, Johnson later served (1862-65) in the Confederate senate, where he refused to support conscription and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. Johnson was president of the 1865 Georgia constitutional convention and was elected (1866) to the U.S. Senate, but he was not allowed to take his seat. He was again a circuit court judge from 1873 until his death.

Johnson, Hiram Warren, 1866-1945, American political leader, U.S. Senator from California (1917-45), b. Sacramento, Calif. His role as attorney in the successful prosecution of Abe Ruef, political boss of San Francisco, led to his election (1910) as governor of California. Johnson broke the political domination of the Southern Pacific RR in California and secured the enactment of much reform legislation. A founder of the Progressive party, he was Theodore Roosevelt's running mate on the unsuccessful Progressive ticket of 1912. He was reelected governor in 1914. In 1916, Johnson refused to support Charles E. Hughes, the Republican presidential candidate, and Hughes lost California and the election to Woodrow Wilson. Johnson himself was elected U.S. Senator on the Progressive ticket and, reelected four times, served in the Senate until his death. In 1920 he was a leading contestant for the Republican presidential nomination, but after Warren G. Harding was nominated, Johnson declined offers of the vice presidential nomination. Although he at first supported the Hoover administration, he later became its bitter opponent, and in 1932 he gave Franklin D. Roosevelt strong support. Johnson had been a stubborn opponent of the League of Nations, and he remained one of the most consistent of the isolationists in Congress.

Johnson, Hugh Samuel, 1882-1942, American army officer, government administrator, b. Fort Scott, Kans. After graduation (1903) from West Point, he entered the U.S. army as a second lieutenant. In World War I he formulated (1917) plans for selective service in the U.S. army, administered the draft, and served on the War Industries Board. Johnson resigned (1919) from the army as brigadier general and became a business executive. He was summoned (1933) to Washington, D.C., to help formulate the National Industrial Recovery Act, and after its passage he served (1933-34) as head of the National Recovery Administration.

Johnson, Jack (John Arthur Johnson), 1878-1946, American boxer, b. Galveston, Tex., the son of two ex-slaves. Emerging from the battle royals (dehumanizing fights between blacks for the amusement of white patrons) of his youth, he defeated Tommy Burns in 1908 to become the world's first African-American heavyweight champion. After an interracial marriage and his defeat of several white hopefuls, Johnson was convicted in 1913 under contrived circumstances for violation of a federal law. He fled to Europe and remained a champion in exile until he lost in a 1915 bout in Cuba, knocked out in the 26th round by Jess Willard. Upon his return to the United States in 1920, he served a year in prison.

Johnson, James Weldon, 1871-1938, American author, b. Jacksonville, Fla., educated at Atlanta Univ. (B.A., 1894) and at Columbia. Johnson was the first African American to be admitted to the Florida bar and later was American consul (1906-12), first in Venezuela and then in Nicaragua. In 1930 he became a professor at Fisk Univ., and in 1934 a visiting professor at New York Univ. He helped found and was secretary (1916-30) of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. His novel Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man (1912), published anonymously, caused a great stir and was republished under his name in 1927. Among his other works are the words to Lift Every Voice and Sing (1900, repr. 1993), which has been called the African-American national anthem, God's Trombones (1927), African-American sermons in verse, and Black Manhattan (1930). He wrote songs with his brother, John Rosamond Johnson.

Johnson, Jimmie Kenneth, 1975-, American auto racer, b. El Cajon, Calif. Johnson began racing at five on motorcycles, progressed to off-road buggies and trucks as a teenager, and then to stock cars on the American Speed Association circuit in 1997 and NASCAR's Busch (now Nationwide) Series in 2000. Driving full-time in what is now NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series since 2002, he became the first driver to win the championship four years in a row (2006-9).

Johnson, Sir John, 1742-1830, Loyalist leader in the American Revolution, b. Mohawk valley, N.Y.; son of Sir William Johnson. He fought against the Native Americans in Pontiac's Conspiracy and was one of his father's chief lieutenants. For his services he was knighted in 1765. In the Revolution, like his brother-in-law, Guy Johnson, he set out to organize the settlers and natives of the Mohawk region against the Revolutionaries. The plan failed, and he fled to Montreal. In the Saratoga campaign (1777) he served with Barry St. Leger and led a detachment at Oriskany. Later he led several raids on the Mohawk and Schoharie valleys. After the Revolution, he moved to Canada and in 1782 succeeded Guy Johnson as superintendent of Indian affairs.

Johnson, John Albert, 1861-1909, American political leader, governor of Minnesota, b. St. Peter, Minn. The son of poor parents, he left school early and worked at various trades until 1887, when he became editor and half owner of the St. Peter Herald, a Democratic journal. His editorials brought him into public notice, and in 1898 he was elected state senator. In 1904 he was elected governor on the Democratic ticket in a Republican state that gave Theodore Roosevelt a two-to-one majority that year. Johnson's victory won him national fame, increased by his reelections in 1906 and 1908. His progressive administration, gracious personality, and talent for speaking made him one of Minnesota's most popular governors.

Johnson, John Harold, 1918-2005, African-American magazine publisher, b. Arkansas City, Ark. The son of a mill worker, he began his career editing a Chicago insurance company magazine. In 1942 he started Negro Digest, a periodical modeled on Reader's Digest. Encouraged by its success, he founded (1945) Ebony, a large-format magazine covering the life of America's black community, and saw it grow from an initial circulation of 25,000 to 1.6 million in 2004. Johnson, who also published Jet (est. 1951) and other magazines and owned a cosmetics line, was one of the nation's richest and most powerful black business executives.

Johnson, John Rosamond, 1873-1954, American composer and singer, b. Jacksonville, Fla. After a career in music halls and light opera in England and on the Continent, Johnson toured Europe and the United States giving programs of spirituals. He composed several hundred songs, including Lift Every Voice and Sing, for which his brother, James Weldon Johnson, wrote the words; it has been called the African-American national anthem. He edited several collections of African-American songs and spirituals.

Johnson, Lady Bird, 1912-, b. Karnack, Tex., as Claudia Alta Taylor. She married (1934) Lyndon B. Johnson and played an active role in his political career. As first lady (1963-69) she sponsored environmental causes and national beautification projects and later co-founded (1982) what is now the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Austin, Tex. A successful businesswoman, she bought (1943) a debt-ridden radio station in Austin, Tex., and built it into a multimillion dollar broadcasting company. She also owned and managed extensive ranching lands in Texas. She was the author of A White House Diary (1970).

Johnson, Lionel Pigot, 1867-1902, British poet and critic, b. Broadstairs, Kent, educated at Oxford. He lived an ascetic, scholarly life in London, converting to Roman Catholicism in 1891. His keen interest in the Irish literary renaissance is reflected in many of his poems. As a whole Johnson's poetry is spare and austere, often spiritual in content and deeply emotional. His works include Poems (1895) and Ireland and Other Poems (1897), and a critical work, The Art of Thomas Hardy (1894). Johnson died of a fall at the age of 35.

Johnson, Lyndon Baines, 1908-73, 36th President of the United States (1963-69), b. near Stonewall, Tex.

Early Life

Born into a farm family, he graduated (1930) from Southwest Texas State Teachers College (now Southwest Texas State Univ.), in San Marcos. He taught in a Houston high school before becoming (1932) secretary to a Texas Congressman. In 1934 he married Claudia Alta Taylor (see Lady Bird Johnson), and they had two daughters, Lynda Bird and Luci Baines. A staunch New Dealer, Johnson gained the friendship of the influential Sam Rayburn, at whose behest President Franklin D. Roosevelt made him (1935) director in Texas of the National Youth Administration.

In the House and the Senate

In 1937, Johnson won election to a vacant congressional seat, and he was consistently reelected through 1946. Despite Roosevelt's support, however, he was defeated in a special election to the Senate in 1941. He served (1941-42) in the navy.

In 1948, Johnson was elected U.S. Senator from Texas after winning the Democratic primary by a mere 87 votes. A strong advocate of military preparedness, he persuaded the Armed Services Committee to set up (1950) the Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee, of which he became chairman. Rising rapidly in the Senate hierarchy, Johnson became (1951) Democratic whip and then (1953) floor leader. As majority leader after the 1954 elections he wielded great power, exhibiting unusual skill in marshaling support for President Eisenhower's programs. He suffered a serious heart attack in 1955 but recovered to continue his senatorial command.

Presidency

Johnson lost the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination to John F. Kennedy, but accepted Kennedy's offer of the vice presidential position. Elected with Kennedy, he energetically supported the President's programs, serving as an American emissary to nations throughout the world and as chairman of the National Aeronautics and Space Council and of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities. After Kennedy's assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, Johnson was sworn in as president and announced that he would strive to carry through Kennedy's programs.

Congress responded to Johnson's skillful prodding by enacting an $11 billion tax cut (Jan., 1964) and a sweeping Civil Rights Act (July, 1964). In May, 1964, Johnson called for a nationwide war against poverty and outlined a vast program of economic and social welfare legislation designed to create what he termed the Great Society. Elected (Nov., 1964) for a full term in a landslide over Senator Barry Goldwater, he pushed hard for his domestic program. The 89th Congress (1965-66) produced more major legislative action than any since the New Deal. A bill providing free medical care (Medicare) to the aged under Social Security was enacted, as was Medicaid; federal aid to education at all levels was greatly expanded; the Voting Rights Act of 1965 provided new safeguards for African-American voters; more money went to antipoverty programs; and the departments of Transportation and of Housing and Urban Development were added to the Cabinet.

Johnson's domestic achievements were soon obscured by foreign affairs, however. The Aug., 1964, incident leading Congress to pass the Tonkin Gulf resolution gave Johnson the authority to take any action necessary to protect American troops in Vietnam. Convinced that South Vietnam was about to fall to Communist forces, Johnson began (Feb., 1965) the bombing of North Vietnam. Within three years he increased American forces in South Vietnam from 20,000 to over 500,000 (see Vietnam War). Johnson's actions eventually aroused widespread opposition in Congress and among the public, and a vigorous antiwar movement developed.

As the cost of the war shot up, Congress scuttled many of Johnson's domestic programs. Riots in the African-American ghettos of large U.S. cities (1967) also dimmed the president's luster. By 1968 he was under sharp attack from all sides. After Senators Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy began campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination, Johnson announced (Mar., 1968) that he would not run for reelection. At the same time he called a partial halt to the bombing of North Vietnam; two months later peace talks began in Paris. When Johnson retired from office (Jan., 1969), he left the nation bitterly divided by the war. He retired to Texas, where he died.

Johnson, Magic (Earvin Johnson, Jr.), 1959-, African-American basketball player, b. Lansing, Mich. After winning the national championship with Michigan State Univ. (1979), he joined the Los Angeles Lakers and with them won five National Basketball Association championships (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987-88). Respected as a consummate team player and leader, he was named most valuable player three times (1987, 1989-90). In 1991 he announced that he had tested positive for HIV and retired from professional basketball. He subsequently worked to promote AIDS awareness, played on the 1992 U.S. Olympic "Dream Team," made brief comebacks with Los Angeles in 1992 and 1996, and coached the Lakers in 1994. In 1998 he bought the Borås, Sweden, professional basketball team and has played occasional games with them. Since his official retirement Johnson has also become a successful entrepeneur, overseeing a multimillion dollar business empire based in inner-city minority neighborhoods throughout the country. He is also a vocal proponent of African-American economic empowerment.

Johnson, Martin Elmer, 1884-1937, American explorer and author, b. Rockford, Ill. He left home at 14 to work his way to Europe on a cattle boat, returning as a stowaway. He then joined the crew of Jack London's round-the-world cruise on the Snark, and was the only member of the party to complete the trip. His interest in photographing wildlife and native tribes seen on this voyage led him to make several trips for this purpose to the South Sea Islands and Borneo before undertaking (1921) the African expeditions for which he is best known. His films include Simba, Congorilla, and Baboona, as well as the film of vanishing wildlife in Africa that was made (1924-29) for the American Museum of Natural History. He was killed in an airplane crash in the United States. His wife, Osa Helen (Leighty) Johnson, 1894-1953, accompanied him on all his expeditions and was coauthor of Cannibal Land (1917), Camera Trails in Africa (1924), Safari (1928, repr. 1972), and Lion (1929). She also wrote I Married Adventure (1940) and Bride in the Solomons (1944).

Johnson, Pamela Hansford: see under Snow, C. P.

Johnson, Philip Cortelyou, 1906-2005, American architect, museum curator, and historian, b. Cleveland, grad. Harvard Univ. (B.A., 1927). One of the first Americans to study modern European architecture, Johnson wrote (with H.-R. Hitchcock) The International Style: Architecture since 1922 (1932), in conjunction with an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City. He became an important American advocate of the new architecture as chairman of the museum's department of architecture (1932-34; 1945-54).

Johnson did not become a working architect until he was in his 30s, receiving his professional degree from Harvard in 1943 and founding his own firm in 1953. A landmark of modern American domestic architecture, Johnson's austerely beautiful glass-walled house in New Canaan, Conn. (1949), reveals the influence of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Johnson wrote a study of Mies in 1947 and collaborated with him on the Seagram Building in New York City (1956-58), now universally viewed as a modern classic. Two other important Manhattan commissions from his earlier years are the Rockefeller Guest House (1950) and the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center (1964), the latter designed in the more decorative, rather neoclassical mode he favored in the 1960s.

Johnson had a successful partnership with John Burgee from 1967 to 1991. The two collaborated on such structures as the addition to the Boston Public Library (1973), Pennzoil Place in Houston, Tex. (1976), with its two trapezoidal towers, the huge Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif. (1980), and skyscrapers in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco, and Dallas. In 1979 he was the first architect to be awarded the pretigious Pritzker Prize.

A latent historicism that had characterized many of Johnson's buildings in midcareer came to the fore in his unabashedly neo-Georgian design (featuring a "Chippendale" broken-pediment top) for the AT&T headquarters in New York City (1978-84, now the Sony Building); the controversy it engendered was a key factor in bringing the postmodern architectural debate into the public forum. Thereafter, Johnson, who formed his own firm in 1992, indulged in an eclectic variety of revival modes and more fragmented, deconstructivist styles. One of his most interesting late structures is the Chrysler Center (2001), a three-story retail pavilion in midtown Manhattan comprised of intersecting pyramids inspired by the tower of the Chrysler Building.

Johnson, Randy (Randall David Johnson), 1963-, American baseball player, b. Walnut Creek, Calif. After pitching for the Univ. of Southern California, Johnson signed with the Montreal Expos in 1985, playing in the minors until he was called up in 1988. Traded to Seattle in 1989, the tall, skinny southpaw won 303 games during his career and struck out more than 4,875 batters (second all-time, behind Nolan Ryan), relying mainly on his fastball and slider. He won the Cy Young award in 1995, was traded to Houston in mid-1998, and played for Arizona beginning in 1999, when he won the first of four consecutive Cy Young Awards. In 2002 the Diamondbacks' "Big Unit" also scored a pitching Triple Crown, with a 24-5 record, 334 strikeouts, and a 2.32 earned run average. Traded to the New York Yankees prior to the 2005 season, Johnson returned to the Diamondbacks for 2007-8 and signed with the San Francisco Giants prior to 2009, his last season in the majors.

Johnson, Reverdy, 1796-1876, American lawyer and statesman, b. Annapolis, Md. Admitted to the bar in 1816, he served in the Maryland legislature (1821-28) and the U.S. Senate (1845-49) and was attorney general under President Taylor. Johnson won a reputation as one of the ablest constitutional lawyers of the period. His constitutional argument as counsel for the defense in the Dred Scott Case is known to have greatly influenced the Supreme Court, particularly Chief Justice Roger Taney. A Whig and then a conservative Democrat, Johnson was sympathetic with the South but was absolutely opposed to secession and used his influence to keep Maryland in the Union. He played an important role in the unsuccessful defense of Mary E. Surratt, alleged accomplice of John Wilkes Booth. In his second term in the U.S. Senate (1863-68), he supported President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction program, and his opposition to the impeachment of Johnson influenced other senators in voting for the President's acquittal. In 1868 he was appointed minister to Great Britain, where he negotiated the Johnson-Clarendon Treaty to settle the Alabama claims; the treaty was rejected by the U.S. Senate largely for party reasons, and Johnson was recalled in 1869.

Johnson, Richard Mentor, 1780-1850, Vice President of the United States (1837-41), b. Kentucky, on the site of present Louisville. Admitted (1802) to the bar, he became prominent in state politics as a Jeffersonian Republican and sat (1804-7) in the Kentucky legislature. He served (1807-1819) in the U.S. House of Representatives and commanded a regiment of Kentucky riflemen in the War of 1812, in which he served under William Henry Harrison in the Canadian campaign. At the battle of the Thames (1813), Johnson was severely wounded in action, and he is said to have killed Tecumseh. He resigned (1819) from the House to fill an unexpired term in the U.S. Senate, where he served until 1829. Again (1829-37) in the House, Johnson supported President Jackson's administration and pushed the bill (1832) abolishing imprisonment for debt. Backed by Jackson, Johnson was nominated (1836) for Vice President on the Democratic ticket with Martin Van Buren. None of the vice presidential candidates received a majority of the electoral vote, so the election was decided by the U.S. Senate, which gave the office to Johnson. He was defeated (1840) in his bid for reelection by the Whig candidate, John Tyler.

Johnson, Richard W., 1827-97, Union general in the Civil War, b. Livingston co., Ky., grad. West Point, 1849. Before the Civil War he served principally on the frontier. Johnson, made a brigadier general of volunteers in Oct., 1861, served as a division commander in the Armies of the Ohio and the Cumberland. He fought at Shiloh and Murfreesboro and in the Chattanooga and Atlanta campaigns. After his service at the battle of Nashville in Dec., 1864, he was brevetted major general.

Johnson, Robert, 1911-38, African-American blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter, b. Hazelhurst, Miss. A sharecropper's son, he grew up absorbing the music of Delta bluesmen, learning the harmonica and then mastering the guitar. Johnson left home around 1930 and for the rest of his life traveled the country, playing and singing at parties, juke joints, barrelhouses, and other venues. His reedy voice and virtuoso guitar technique combined in a classic blues sound, plaintive and lonely. The vagaries of love and evil are the themes of many of the songs he sang, whether written by others or himself, e.g., "Terraplane Blues" and "Hellhound on My Trail." In San Antonio (1936) and Dallas (1937) he recorded 29 blues songs, but a year later he was poisoned by a jealous husband. Though all that remains of his legendary work are those Texas recordings, Johnson's influence has been profound, on later blues players and on rock and rollers, some of whom, e.g., the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton, have recorded his songs.

Johnson, Rossiter, 1840-1931, American editor, b. Rochester, N.Y. He was associate editor (1873-77) of the American Cyclopaedia, editor (1883-1902) of the Annual Cyclopedia, and managing editor (1886-89) of the Cyclopedia of American Biography. He originated and edited the "Little Classics" (18 vol., 1875-80) and was editor in chief of "The World's Great Books" (40 vol., 1898-1901). He also lectured widely and wrote a variety of books.

Johnson, Samuel, 1696-1772, American clergyman, educator, and philosopher, b. Guilford, Conn., grad. Collegiate School (now Yale), 1714; father of William Samuel Johnson. He became a Congregationalist minister, but in 1722 joined the Church of England. In 1724 he opened the first Anglican church in Connecticut at Stratford, remaining its minister until 1754, when he became the first president of an Anglican institution, King's College (now Columbia), in New York City. He resigned in 1763 to return to Stratford. A friend and correspondent of the English philosopher George Berkeley, Johnson became the principal exponent in America of Berkeleian idealism. His chief work was Ethica (1746), republished in an enlarged edition by Benjamin Franklin as Elementa Philosophica (1752).

Johnson, Samuel, 1709-84, English author, b. Lichfield. The leading literary scholar and critic of his time, Johnson helped to shape and define the Augustan Age. He was equally celebrated for his brilliant and witty conversation. His rather gross appearance and manners were viewed tolerantly, if not with a certain admiration.

Early Life and Works

The son of a bookseller, Johnson excelled at school in spite of illness (he suffered the effects of scrofula throughout his life) and poverty. He entered Oxford in 1728 but was forced to leave after a year for lack of funds. He sustained himself as a bookseller and schoolmaster for the next six years, during which he continued his wide reading and published some translations. In 1735 he married Elizabeth Porter, a widow 20 years his senior, and remained devoted to her until her death in 1752.

Johnson settled in London in 1737 and began his literary career in earnest. At first he wrote primarily for Edward Cave's Gentleman's Magazine—poetry and prose on subjects literary and political. His poem "London," published anonymously in 1738, was praised by Pope and won Johnson recognition in literary circles. His Life of Savage (1744) is a bitter portrait of corruption in London and the miseries endured by writers. Also of note are his long poem The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749) and his essays in the periodical The Rambler (1750-52).

Later Life and Works

Johnson's first work of lasting importance, and the one that permanently established his reputation in his own time, was his Dictionary of the English Language (1755), the first comprehensive lexicographical work on English ever undertaken. Rasselas, a moral romance, appeared in 1759, and The Idler, a collection of his essays, in 1761. Although Johnson enjoyed great literary acclaim, he remained close to poverty until a government pension was granted to him in 1762. The following year was marked by his meeting with James Boswell, whose famous biography presents Johnson in exhaustive and fascinating detail, often recreating his conversations verbatim.

In 1764 Johnson and Joshua Reynolds founded "The Club" (known later as The Literary Club). Its membership included Oliver Goldsmith, Edmund Burke, David Garrick, and Boswell. The brilliance of this intellectual elite was, reportedly, dazzling, and Dr. Johnson (he had received a degree in 1764) was its leading light. His witty remarks are remembered to this day. He was a master not only of the aphorism—e.g., his definition of angling as "a stick and a string, with a worm on one end and a fool on the other"—but also of the quick, unexpected retort, as when, while listening with displeasure to a violinist, he was told that the feat being performed was very difficult: "Difficult," replied Johnson, "I wish it had been impossible!"

In 1765 Johnson met Henry and Hester Thrale, whose friendship and hospitality he enjoyed until Thrale's death and Mrs. Thrale's remarriage. In that same year Johnson's long-heralded edition of Shakespeare appeared. Its editorial principles served as a model for future editions, and its preface and critical notes are still highly valued. In the 1770s Johnson wrote a series of Tory pamphlets. His political conservatism was based upon a profound skepticism as to the perfectibility of human nature. Although personally generous and compassionate, he held that a strict social order is necessary to save humanity from itself.

In 1773 he toured the Hebrides with Boswell and published his account of the tour in 1775. Johnson's Lives of the Poets (1779-1781), his last major work, comprises ten small volumes of acute criticism, characterized, as is all of Johnson's work, by both classical values and sensitive perception. Dr. Johnson, as he is universally known, was England's first full-dress man of letters, and his mind and personality helped to create the traditions that have guided English taste and criticism.

Johnson, Thomas, 1732-1819, American political leader, b. Calvert co., Md. A lawyer, he served (1762-73) in the Maryland colonial assembly, where he became prominent in the fight against the Stamp Act (1765). He was a member (1774-77) of the Continental Congress, and he nominated (1775) George Washington as commander in chief of the Continental army. Johnson served as governor of Maryland (1777-79) and helped bring about Maryland's adoption of the Constitution. He served briefly (1791-93) as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Johnson, Tom Loftin, 1854-1911, American municipal reformer, mayor of Cleveland (1901-10), b. Georgetown, Ky. He acquired a substantial fortune from streetcar and steel interests, and, deeply influenced in the 1880s by the writings of Henry George, he devoted himself to reform. After two terms (1891-95) as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives, he became (1901) mayor of Cleveland, serving four terms. He fought strenuous battles for municipal reform against political bosses (especially Mark Hanna) and business interests. Although his plans for municipal ownership of public utilities were not realized, he helped create civic consciousness in Cleveland, initiated sanitary measures, and improved facilities to help the city's poor. Cleveland, in the time of Johnson's mayoralty, was called "the best governed city in the United States."

Johnson, Uwe, 1934-84, German novelist. Johnson's works explore the complex effects on the average person of the postwar division of Germany, both halves of which he sees as zones of moral poverty. His best-known novels include Mutmassungen über Jakob (1959; tr. Speculations about Jacob, 1963) and Das dritte Buch über Achim (1961; tr. The Third Book about Achim, 1966). In Jahrestage (1970-74, tr. Anniversaries, 1975) he relates his sense of the failure of liberalism in the United States in the 1960s to its failure in Germany in the 1930s.

Johnson, Walter Perry, 1887-1946, American baseball player, b. Humboldt, Kans. He began playing with the Washington Senators of the American League in 1907. A right-handed pitcher, he won 417 games while losing 279 before he retired from active play in 1927. He is still second in career wins and holds the career mark for shutouts (110). The "Big Train," as he was often called, later managed the Newark team (1928) of the International League and the Senators (1929-32) and the Cleveland Indians (1933-35) of the American League. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936.

Johnson, Sir William, 1715-74, British colonial leader in America, b. Co. Meath, Ireland. He settled (1738) in the Mohawk valley, became a merchant, and gained great power among the Mohawk and other Iroquois. He acquired large landed properties, founded (1762) Johnstown, N.Y., and lived in baronial splendor at Johnson Hall. Because of his influence with the indigenous population (he was made a Mohawk sachem in the 1740s), he was a key figure in the French and Indian Wars, first becoming prominent in King George's War. At the Albany Congress (1754) he helped formulate British policy toward native peoples, and he was made (1755) superintendent of Iroquois affairs. In the French and Indian War, although his expedition against Crown Point did not capture that fort, he soundly defeated (1755) the French under Baron Dieskau at Lake George and built Fort William Henry. Johnson was rewarded with a baronetcy.

In 1759 he captured Fort Niagara, and in 1760 he served with Gen. Jeffery Amherst in the capture of Montreal. He had been appointed general superintendent of Indian affairs north of the Ohio in 1756, and after the Peace of Paris (1763) his office was of great significance in the vast new areas gained from France. His chief lieutenants were George Croghan; Johnson's son-in-law, Guy Johnson; his son, Sir John Johnson; and Daniel Claus. Although Pontiac's Rebellion and British economy measures prevented him from establishing the centralized control over natives and fur traders that he desired, he did much to further British rule in the formerly French territories. He presided at the council of Fort Stanwix (1768). His papers have been edited by the New York State Division of Archives (13 vol., 1921-62).

Johnson, William Samuel, 1727-1819, American political leader and president of Columbia College (1787-1800), b. Stratford, Conn. A lawyer in Connecticut, he soon became a leading figure in the colony, serving as a member of the lower house and in the governor's council. Although conservative in his views, he was sent (1765) as a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress. From 1767 to 1771 he was an agent of Connecticut in England and after his return was a judge of the superior court (1772-73). Because of his opposition to political independence of the colonies, he declined to serve when elected as a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774) and soon retired from politics. He was called from retirement to represent (1785-87) Connecticut in the Confederation Congress and at the U.S. Constitutional Convention (1787), in which he took a prominent part in the debate on represention. He served (1787-1800) as president of the newly reorganized Columbia College, formerly King's College, of which his father, Samuel Johnson (1696-1772), had been president. He was elected U.S. Senator from Connecticut in 1789, but retired in 1791.

(born Dec. 27, 1915, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.—died Feb. 16, 2001, Tucson, Ariz.) (born Feb. 11, 1925, Springfield, Missouri, U.S.) U.S. human-sexuality research team. Together (as physician and psychologist, respectively), they founded and codirected the Masters & Johnson Institute in St. Louis. They observed couples having sex under laboratory conditions, using biochemical equipment to record sexual stimulations and reactions. Their book Human Sexual Response (1966) was considered the first comprehensive study of the physiology and anatomy of human sexual activity (see sexual response). They were married in 1971 and continued to collaborate after their divorce in 1993.

Learn more about Masters, William H(owell); and Johnson, Virginia E(shelman) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 6, 1887, Humboldt, Kan., U.S.—died Dec. 10, 1946, Washington, D.C.) U.S. baseball pitcher. Johnson had perhaps the greatest fastball in the history of the game. A right-handed thrower with a sidearm delivery who batted right as well, Johnson pitched for the Washington Senators of the American League from 1907 through 1927. He holds the all-time record for most shutouts (110), ranks second to Cy Young in wins (416), and established the record for his time for most strikeouts (3,508; broken in 1983). After his playing career, he became a manager with the Senators and later with the Cleveland Indians.

Learn more about Johnson, Walter (Perry) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 4, 1816, Haddam, Conn., U.S.—died April 9, 1899, Washington, D.C.) U.S. jurist. After graduating from Williams College in 1837, he practiced law in New York with his brother, the legal reformer David Dudley Field (1805–94). In 1849 he moved to California, where he later joined the state supreme court. In 1863 he was appointed by Pres. Abraham Lincoln to the Supreme Court of the United States; he served until 1897. He became chief architect of the constitutional approach that largely exempted U.S. industry from government regulation after the American Civil War, basing his interpretation principally on the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment (1868), which had been passed as a civil-rights measure. Field's stance toward industry would be maintained by the Court until the 1930s.

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known as Dr. Johnson

(born Sept. 18, 1709, Lichfield, Staffordshire, Eng.—died Dec. 13, 1784, London) British man of letters, one of the outstanding figures of 18th-century England. The son of a poor bookseller, he briefly attended Oxford University. He moved to London after the failure of a school he and his wife had started. He wrote for periodicals and was hired to catalog the great library of the earl of Oxford. In 1755, after eight years of labour, he produced his monumental Dictionary of the English Language (1755), the first great English dictionary, which brought him fame. He continued to write for such periodicals as The Gentleman's Magazine and The Universal Chronicle, and he almost single-handedly wrote and edited the biweekly The Rambler (1750–52). He also wrote plays, none of which succeeded on the stage. In 1765 he produced a critical edition of William Shakespeare with a famous preface that did much to establish Shakespeare as the centre of the literary canon. His travel writings include A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775). His Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, 10 vol. (1779–81), was a significant critical work. A brilliant conversationalist, he helped found the Literary Club (circa 1763), which became famous for its members of distinction, including David Garrick, Edmund Burke, Oliver Goldsmith, and Joshua Reynolds. His aphorisms helped make him one of the most frequently quoted of English writers. The biography of Johnson written by his contemporary James Boswell is one of the most admired biographies of all time.

Learn more about Johnson, Samuel with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born circa 1911, Hazlehurst, Miss., U.S.—died Aug. 16, 1938, near Greenwood, Miss.) U.S. blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Born to a sharecropping family, he learned harmonica and guitar, probably influenced by personal contact with Delta bluesmen such as Eddie “Son” House and Charley Patton. He traveled widely throughout the South and as far north as Chicago and New York City, playing at house parties, juke joints, and lumber camps. In 1936–37 he recorded songs by House and others, as well as originals such as “Me and the Devil Blues,” “Hellhound on My Trail,” and “Love in Vain.” He is said to have died, at age 27, after drinking strychnine-laced whiskey (possibly the work of a jealous husband) in a juke joint. His eerie falsetto and masterly slide guitar influenced many later blues and rock musicians.

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(born 1780, near Louisville, Va., U.S.—died Nov. 19, 1850, Frankfort, Ky.) U.S. politician. He practiced law in Kentucky before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1807–19, 1829–37). As a colonel in the War of 1812, he was wounded in the Battle of the Thames, where he reputedly killed Tecumseh. He returned to his congressional seat and later was elected to the Senate (1819–29). He was a loyal supporter of Pres. Andrew Jackson, who chose him as Martin Van Buren's running mate in the 1836 election. None of the four vice-presidential candidates won an electoral-vote majority, and the outcome was decided by the Senate, the only such occurrence in U.S. history. Johnson served one term in the office.

Learn more about Johnson, Richard M(entor) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 7, 1904, Detroit, Mich., U.S.—died Dec. 9, 1971, New York, N.Y.) U.S. diplomat. He earned graduate degrees at Harvard University and taught at Howard University from 1928. After studying colonial policy in Africa, he collaborated with Gunnar Myrdal in An American Dilemma (1944), a study of U.S. race relations. He worked in the U.S. war and state departments during World War II. In 1947 he became director of the trusteeship department of the UN Secretariat. His work in forging a truce between Palestinian Arabs and Jews earned him the 1950 Nobel Prize for Peace. As UN undersecretary for political affairs, he oversaw UN peacekeeping forces around the Suez Canal (1956), in the Congo (1960), and in Cyprus (1964). He also served on the board of the NAACP for 22 years.

Learn more about Bunche, Ralph (Johnson) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Dec. 27, 1915, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.—died Feb. 16, 2001, Tucson, Ariz.) (born Feb. 11, 1925, Springfield, Missouri, U.S.) U.S. human-sexuality research team. Together (as physician and psychologist, respectively), they founded and codirected the Masters & Johnson Institute in St. Louis. They observed couples having sex under laboratory conditions, using biochemical equipment to record sexual stimulations and reactions. Their book Human Sexual Response (1966) was considered the first comprehensive study of the physiology and anatomy of human sexual activity (see sexual response). They were married in 1971 and continued to collaborate after their divorce in 1993.

Learn more about Masters, William H(owell); and Johnson, Virginia E(shelman) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

orig. Earvin Johnson, Jr.

(born Aug. 14, 1959, Lansing, Mich., U.S.) U.S. basketball player. He led Michigan State University to the collegiate championship in 1979 and led the NBA Los Angeles Lakers to five championships in the 1980s. Standing 6 ft 9 in. (2.06 m) tall, he was exceptionally tall for a point guard and was able to use his size to rebound and score inside. However, he was best known for his creative passing and expert floor leadership. He was named Most Valuable Player three times (1987, 1989, 1990). He retired after being diagnosed with HIV in 1991, though he returned to the Lakers for brief stints as a player and as a coach.

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(born Aug. 27, 1908, Gillespie county, Texas, U.S.—died Jan. 22, 1973, San Antonio, Texas) 36th president of the U.S. (1963–69). He taught school in Houston, Texas, before going to Washington, D.C., in 1932 as a congressional aide. In Washington he was befriended by Sam Rayburn, speaker of the House of Representatives, and his political career blossomed. He won a seat in the U.S. House (1937–49) as a supporter of the New Deal, which was under conservative attack. His loyalty impressed Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who made Johnson his protégé. He won election to the U.S. Senate in 1949 in a vicious campaign that involved fraud on both sides. As Democratic whip (1951–55) and majority leader (1955–61), he developed a talent for consensus building through methods both tactful and ruthless. He was largely responsible for passage of the civil rights bills of 1957 and 1960, the first in the 20th century. In 1960 he was elected vice president under John F. Kennedy; he became president after Kennedy's assassination in 1963. In his first few months in office he won passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the most comprehensive and far-reaching legislation of its kind in American history. Later that year he announced his Great Society program of social-welfare and civil rights legislation. His attention to domestic matters, however, was diverted by the country's escalating involvement in the Vietnam War (see Gulf of Tonkin Resolution), which provoked large student demonstrations and other protests, beginning in the late 1960s. Meanwhile, discontent and alienation among the young and racial minorities increased as the promises of the Great Society failed to materialize. By 1967 Johnson's popularity had declined steeply, and in early 1968 he announced that he would not seek reelection. He retired to his Texas ranch.

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(born Nov. 6, 1887, Humboldt, Kan., U.S.—died Dec. 10, 1946, Washington, D.C.) U.S. baseball pitcher. Johnson had perhaps the greatest fastball in the history of the game. A right-handed thrower with a sidearm delivery who batted right as well, Johnson pitched for the Washington Senators of the American League from 1907 through 1927. He holds the all-time record for most shutouts (110), ranks second to Cy Young in wins (416), and established the record for his time for most strikeouts (3,508; broken in 1983). After his playing career, he became a manager with the Senators and later with the Cleveland Indians.

Learn more about Johnson, Walter (Perry) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

known as Dr. Johnson

(born Sept. 18, 1709, Lichfield, Staffordshire, Eng.—died Dec. 13, 1784, London) British man of letters, one of the outstanding figures of 18th-century England. The son of a poor bookseller, he briefly attended Oxford University. He moved to London after the failure of a school he and his wife had started. He wrote for periodicals and was hired to catalog the great library of the earl of Oxford. In 1755, after eight years of labour, he produced his monumental Dictionary of the English Language (1755), the first great English dictionary, which brought him fame. He continued to write for such periodicals as The Gentleman's Magazine and The Universal Chronicle, and he almost single-handedly wrote and edited the biweekly The Rambler (1750–52). He also wrote plays, none of which succeeded on the stage. In 1765 he produced a critical edition of William Shakespeare with a famous preface that did much to establish Shakespeare as the centre of the literary canon. His travel writings include A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775). His Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, 10 vol. (1779–81), was a significant critical work. A brilliant conversationalist, he helped found the Literary Club (circa 1763), which became famous for its members of distinction, including David Garrick, Edmund Burke, Oliver Goldsmith, and Joshua Reynolds. His aphorisms helped make him one of the most frequently quoted of English writers. The biography of Johnson written by his contemporary James Boswell is one of the most admired biographies of all time.

Learn more about Johnson, Samuel with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born circa 1911, Hazlehurst, Miss., U.S.—died Aug. 16, 1938, near Greenwood, Miss.) U.S. blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Born to a sharecropping family, he learned harmonica and guitar, probably influenced by personal contact with Delta bluesmen such as Eddie “Son” House and Charley Patton. He traveled widely throughout the South and as far north as Chicago and New York City, playing at house parties, juke joints, and lumber camps. In 1936–37 he recorded songs by House and others, as well as originals such as “Me and the Devil Blues,” “Hellhound on My Trail,” and “Love in Vain.” He is said to have died, at age 27, after drinking strychnine-laced whiskey (possibly the work of a jealous husband) in a juke joint. His eerie falsetto and masterly slide guitar influenced many later blues and rock musicians.

Learn more about Johnson, Robert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born 1780, near Louisville, Va., U.S.—died Nov. 19, 1850, Frankfort, Ky.) U.S. politician. He practiced law in Kentucky before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1807–19, 1829–37). As a colonel in the War of 1812, he was wounded in the Battle of the Thames, where he reputedly killed Tecumseh. He returned to his congressional seat and later was elected to the Senate (1819–29). He was a loyal supporter of Pres. Andrew Jackson, who chose him as Martin Van Buren's running mate in the 1836 election. None of the four vice-presidential candidates won an electoral-vote majority, and the outcome was decided by the Senate, the only such occurrence in U.S. history. Johnson served one term in the office.

Learn more about Johnson, Richard M(entor) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

orig. Earvin Johnson, Jr.

(born Aug. 14, 1959, Lansing, Mich., U.S.) U.S. basketball player. He led Michigan State University to the collegiate championship in 1979 and led the NBA Los Angeles Lakers to five championships in the 1980s. Standing 6 ft 9 in. (2.06 m) tall, he was exceptionally tall for a point guard and was able to use his size to rebound and score inside. However, he was best known for his creative passing and expert floor leadership. He was named Most Valuable Player three times (1987, 1989, 1990). He retired after being diagnosed with HIV in 1991, though he returned to the Lakers for brief stints as a player and as a coach.

Learn more about Johnson, Magic with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 27, 1908, Gillespie county, Texas, U.S.—died Jan. 22, 1973, San Antonio, Texas) 36th president of the U.S. (1963–69). He taught school in Houston, Texas, before going to Washington, D.C., in 1932 as a congressional aide. In Washington he was befriended by Sam Rayburn, speaker of the House of Representatives, and his political career blossomed. He won a seat in the U.S. House (1937–49) as a supporter of the New Deal, which was under conservative attack. His loyalty impressed Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who made Johnson his protégé. He won election to the U.S. Senate in 1949 in a vicious campaign that involved fraud on both sides. As Democratic whip (1951–55) and majority leader (1955–61), he developed a talent for consensus building through methods both tactful and ruthless. He was largely responsible for passage of the civil rights bills of 1957 and 1960, the first in the 20th century. In 1960 he was elected vice president under John F. Kennedy; he became president after Kennedy's assassination in 1963. In his first few months in office he won passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the most comprehensive and far-reaching legislation of its kind in American history. Later that year he announced his Great Society program of social-welfare and civil rights legislation. His attention to domestic matters, however, was diverted by the country's escalating involvement in the Vietnam War (see Gulf of Tonkin Resolution), which provoked large student demonstrations and other protests, beginning in the late 1960s. Meanwhile, discontent and alienation among the young and racial minorities increased as the promises of the Great Society failed to materialize. By 1967 Johnson's popularity had declined steeply, and in early 1968 he announced that he would not seek reelection. He retired to his Texas ranch.

Learn more about Johnson, Lyndon B(aines) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 19, 1918, Arkansas City, Ark., U.S.—died Aug. 8, 2005, Chicago, Ill.) U.S. magazine and book publisher. He moved to Chicago with his family and became a journalist. In 1942 he introduced Negro Digest, a periodical for blacks. Three years later he launched Ebony, a magazine he modeled on Life; by 2004 it had a circulation of some 1.7 million. Through Johnson Publishing Co., he also published black-oriented books and other magazines, and he later moved into radio broadcasting, insurance, and cosmetics manufacturing.

Learn more about Johnson, John H(arold) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born June 17, 1871, Jacksonville, Fla., U.S.—died June 26, 1938, Wiscasset, Maine) U.S. writer. He practiced law in Florida before moving with his brother, the composer J. Rosamond Johnson (1873–1954), to New York; there the two collaborated on some 200 songs for the Broadway stage. Johnson held diplomatic posts in Venezuela and Nicaragua and served as executive secretary of the NAACP (1920–30). From 1930 he taught at Fisk University. His writings include the novel Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912), Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), and his best-known work, God's Trombones (1927), a group of dialect sermons in verse. The brothers collaborated on the pioneering anthologies Book of American Negro Poetry (1922) and American Negro Spirituals (1925, 1926). Their most famous original song, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” became an anthem of the civil rights movement.

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in full John Arthur Johnson

(born Mar. 31, 1878, Galveston, Tex., U.S.—died June 10, 1946, Raleigh, N.C.) U.S. boxer, the first black to hold the h1 for the heavyweight championship of the world. Johnson's career was marked from the beginning by racial discrimination; until his match with Tommy Burns, he had a difficult time getting fights. Johnson won the heavyweight crown in 1908 by knocking out Burns and kept it until 1915, when he was knocked out by Jess Willard in 26 rounds. At the height of his career, Johnson was excoriated by the press for having twice married white women, and he further offended white supremacists by knocking out former champion James J. Jeffries, who was induced to come out of retirement as a “Great White Hope.” In 1912 Johnson was convicted of violating the Mann Act for transporting his wife-to-be across state lines before their marriage. He was sentenced to a year in prison and was released on bond; he fled to Canada, made his way to Europe, and was a fugitive for seven years. He defended the championship three times in Paris before agreeing to fight Willard in Havana, Cuba. Some observers thought that Johnson, mistakenly believing that the charge against him would be dropped if he yielded the championship to a white man, deliberately lost to Willard. Johnson surrendered to U.S. authorities in 1920 to serve a one-year sentence. From 1897 to 1928, Johnson had 114 bouts, winning 80, 45 by knockouts.

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(born July 29, 1900, Svartbjörnsbyn, near Boden, Swed.—died Aug. 25, 1976, Stockholm) Swedish novelist. He endured a grim boyhood of hard labour. His early novels evince feelings of frustration; Bobinack (1932) is an exposé of the machinations of modern capitalism, and Rain at Daybreak (1933) is an attack on modern office drudgery. Return to Ithaca (1946) and The Days of His Grace (1960) have been widely translated. Johnson's working-class novels experimented with new forms and techniques; they also introduced new themes to Swedish literature. He shared the 1974 Nobel Prize for Literature with Harry Martinson.

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(born Dec. 29, 1808, Raleigh, N.C., U.S.—died July 31, 1875, near Carter Station, Tenn.) 17th president of the U.S. (1865–69). Born in poverty, he never attended school, and he taught himself to read and write. After a short apprenticeship as a tailor, he moved with his family to Greeneville, Tenn., where he opened his own tailor shop. Before he was 21 he organized a workingman's party. Elected to the state legislature (1835–43), he became a spokesman for small farmers. He then served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1843–53) and as governor of Tennessee (1853–57). Elected to the U.S. Senate (1857–62), he opposed antislavery agitation, but, in 1860, after the election of Pres. Abraham Lincoln, he vehemently rejected Southern secession, a position he maintained even after Tennessee seceded in 1861. During the American Civil War he was the only Southern senator who refused to join the Confederacy. In 1862 he was appointed military governor of Tennessee, then under Union control. In 1864 he was selected to run for vice president with President Lincoln; he assumed the presidency after Lincoln's assassination. During Reconstruction he favoured a moderate policy of readmitting former Confederate states to the Union with few provisions for reform or civil rights for freedmen. In 1867, Johnson's vetoes of legislation to establish a Freedmen's Bureau and other civil rights measures angered moderate as well as Radical Republicans; in response, they united to pass the Tenure of Office Act (1867), which forbade the president from removing civil officers without senatorial consent. In 1868, in defiance of the act, Johnson dismissed secretary of war Edwin M. Stanton, an ally of the Radicals. The House then voted to impeach the president—the first such occurrence in U.S. history. In the subsequent Senate trial, the charges proved weak, and the necessary two-thirds vote needed for conviction failed by one vote. Johnson remained in office until 1869, but he had lost the ability to lead. He returned to Tennessee, where he won reelection to the Senate shortly before he died.

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(born Jan. 19, 1918, Arkansas City, Ark., U.S.—died Aug. 8, 2005, Chicago, Ill.) U.S. magazine and book publisher. He moved to Chicago with his family and became a journalist. In 1942 he introduced Negro Digest, a periodical for blacks. Three years later he launched Ebony, a magazine he modeled on Life; by 2004 it had a circulation of some 1.7 million. Through Johnson Publishing Co., he also published black-oriented books and other magazines, and he later moved into radio broadcasting, insurance, and cosmetics manufacturing.

Learn more about Johnson, John H(arold) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born June 17, 1871, Jacksonville, Fla., U.S.—died June 26, 1938, Wiscasset, Maine) U.S. writer. He practiced law in Florida before moving with his brother, the composer J. Rosamond Johnson (1873–1954), to New York; there the two collaborated on some 200 songs for the Broadway stage. Johnson held diplomatic posts in Venezuela and Nicaragua and served as executive secretary of the NAACP (1920–30). From 1930 he taught at Fisk University. His writings include the novel Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912), Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), and his best-known work, God's Trombones (1927), a group of dialect sermons in verse. The brothers collaborated on the pioneering anthologies Book of American Negro Poetry (1922) and American Negro Spirituals (1925, 1926). Their most famous original song, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” became an anthem of the civil rights movement.

Learn more about Johnson, James Weldon with a free trial on Britannica.com.

in full John Arthur Johnson

(born Mar. 31, 1878, Galveston, Tex., U.S.—died June 10, 1946, Raleigh, N.C.) U.S. boxer, the first black to hold the h1 for the heavyweight championship of the world. Johnson's career was marked from the beginning by racial discrimination; until his match with Tommy Burns, he had a difficult time getting fights. Johnson won the heavyweight crown in 1908 by knocking out Burns and kept it until 1915, when he was knocked out by Jess Willard in 26 rounds. At the height of his career, Johnson was excoriated by the press for having twice married white women, and he further offended white supremacists by knocking out former champion James J. Jeffries, who was induced to come out of retirement as a “Great White Hope.” In 1912 Johnson was convicted of violating the Mann Act for transporting his wife-to-be across state lines before their marriage. He was sentenced to a year in prison and was released on bond; he fled to Canada, made his way to Europe, and was a fugitive for seven years. He defended the championship three times in Paris before agreeing to fight Willard in Havana, Cuba. Some observers thought that Johnson, mistakenly believing that the charge against him would be dropped if he yielded the championship to a white man, deliberately lost to Willard. Johnson surrendered to U.S. authorities in 1920 to serve a one-year sentence. From 1897 to 1928, Johnson had 114 bouts, winning 80, 45 by knockouts.

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(born Nov. 4, 1816, Haddam, Conn., U.S.—died April 9, 1899, Washington, D.C.) U.S. jurist. After graduating from Williams College in 1837, he practiced law in New York with his brother, the legal reformer David Dudley Field (1805–94). In 1849 he moved to California, where he later joined the state supreme court. In 1863 he was appointed by Pres. Abraham Lincoln to the Supreme Court of the United States; he served until 1897. He became chief architect of the constitutional approach that largely exempted U.S. industry from government regulation after the American Civil War, basing his interpretation principally on the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment (1868), which had been passed as a civil-rights measure. Field's stance toward industry would be maintained by the Court until the 1930s.

Learn more about Field, Stephen J(ohnson) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born July 29, 1900, Svartbjörnsbyn, near Boden, Swed.—died Aug. 25, 1976, Stockholm) Swedish novelist. He endured a grim boyhood of hard labour. His early novels evince feelings of frustration; Bobinack (1932) is an exposé of the machinations of modern capitalism, and Rain at Daybreak (1933) is an attack on modern office drudgery. Return to Ithaca (1946) and The Days of His Grace (1960) have been widely translated. Johnson's working-class novels experimented with new forms and techniques; they also introduced new themes to Swedish literature. He shared the 1974 Nobel Prize for Literature with Harry Martinson.

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(born Aug. 7, 1904, Detroit, Mich., U.S.—died Dec. 9, 1971, New York, N.Y.) U.S. diplomat. He earned graduate degrees at Harvard University and taught at Howard University from 1928. After studying colonial policy in Africa, he collaborated with Gunnar Myrdal in An American Dilemma (1944), a study of U.S. race relations. He worked in the U.S. war and state departments during World War II. In 1947 he became director of the trusteeship department of the UN Secretariat. His work in forging a truce between Palestinian Arabs and Jews earned him the 1950 Nobel Prize for Peace. As UN undersecretary for political affairs, he oversaw UN peacekeeping forces around the Suez Canal (1956), in the Congo (1960), and in Cyprus (1964). He also served on the board of the NAACP for 22 years.

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(born Dec. 29, 1808, Raleigh, N.C., U.S.—died July 31, 1875, near Carter Station, Tenn.) 17th president of the U.S. (1865–69). Born in poverty, he never attended school, and he taught himself to read and write. After a short apprenticeship as a tailor, he moved with his family to Greeneville, Tenn., where he opened his own tailor shop. Before he was 21 he organized a workingman's party. Elected to the state legislature (1835–43), he became a spokesman for small farmers. He then served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1843–53) and as governor of Tennessee (1853–57). Elected to the U.S. Senate (1857–62), he opposed antislavery agitation, but, in 1860, after the election of Pres. Abraham Lincoln, he vehemently rejected Southern secession, a position he maintained even after Tennessee seceded in 1861. During the American Civil War he was the only Southern senator who refused to join the Confederacy. In 1862 he was appointed military governor of Tennessee, then under Union control. In 1864 he was selected to run for vice president with President Lincoln; he assumed the presidency after Lincoln's assassination. During Reconstruction he favoured a moderate policy of readmitting former Confederate states to the Union with few provisions for reform or civil rights for freedmen. In 1867, Johnson's vetoes of legislation to establish a Freedmen's Bureau and other civil rights measures angered moderate as well as Radical Republicans; in response, they united to pass the Tenure of Office Act (1867), which forbade the president from removing civil officers without senatorial consent. In 1868, in defiance of the act, Johnson dismissed secretary of war Edwin M. Stanton, an ally of the Radicals. The House then voted to impeach the president—the first such occurrence in U.S. history. In the subsequent Senate trial, the charges proved weak, and the necessary two-thirds vote needed for conviction failed by one vote. Johnson remained in office until 1869, but he had lost the ability to lead. He returned to Tennessee, where he won reelection to the Senate shortly before he died.

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Johnson is a city in Washington County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 2,319 at the 2000 census.

Geography

Johnson is located at (36.133867, -94.165937).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.1 square miles (8.0 km²), all of it land.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 2,319 people, 928 households, and 638 families residing in the city. The population density was 751.2 people per square mile (289.8/km²). There were 990 housing units at an average density of 320.7/sq mi (123.7/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 91.55% White, 1.42% Black or African American, 0.69% Native American, 2.11% Asian, 0.09% Pacific Islander, 1.68% from other races, and 2.46% from two or more races. 3.19% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 928 households out of which 37.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.5% were married couples living together, 10.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.3% were non-families. 22.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 2.98.

In the city the population was spread out with 27.8% under the age of 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 42.8% from 25 to 44, 13.6% from 45 to 64, and 5.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 29 years. For every 100 females there were 91.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.6 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $44,556, and the median income for a family was $51,618. Males had a median income of $35,189 versus $25,625 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,502. About 5.4% of families and 7.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.2% of those under age 18 and 9.6% of those age 65 or over.

Notable native

• Amarillo Slim-Professional poker player was born here, but lives in Amarillo, Texas.

References

External links