Anna Johnson Julian

Anna Johnson Julian, born Anna Roselle Johnson (November 24, 1903 – July 3, 1994) was the first African-American woman awarded a PhD in sociology by the University of Pennsylvania, a civic activist, and fourth national president of Delta Sigma Theta, a historically black sorority. In the 1930s, Julian studied factors inhibiting children's education and taught sociology at the University of the District of Columbia then known as Miner Teachers College. Her doctoral work was an analysis of the case records of 100 families receiving income support. She was married to prominent chemist, Percy Lavon Julian, from 1935 to his death in 1975, and had three children. The couple and their children faced down a violent and abusive campaign of intimidation when they moved into an upscale home in Oak Park, Chicago, with attacks on their home, including two fire bombings. The Julians founded the Chicago Chapter of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Julian was active in a range of civic arenas and faith-based organizations, including serving as chairman of the women's auxiliary of the Chicago Urban League and vice president of a national African-American women's civic organization. In 1963, she was appointed by the state governor to a Commission on Birth Control, which advised the state legislature on the issue of state-sponsored birth control for women receiving state aid. In the 1970s and 1980s, she was a board member of Rosary College (now Dominican University), retiring as president in 1985. Julian died in Oak Park at the age of 90, having received numerous honors, including honorary doctorates from three universities.

Early life and education

Anna Roselle Johnson was born on November 24, 1903, in Baltimore, Maryland. Her parents were Adelaide Scott Johnson and Charles Speare Johnson (a chiropodist), and she was the fifth of their seven daughters.

Johnson attained her bachelor's degree in 1923, and she entered the postgraduate program in sociology the next year.

Julian passed a preliminary PhD examination in 1935. Her dissertation was titled Standards of Relief: An Analysis of One Hundred Family Case Records.

In 1939, Julian left her job in DC to join her husband in Chicago, becoming a lifelong civic activist. The commission had 15 members, advising on the "legal, social and moral" aspects of state-sponsored birth control to women receiving state aid. Julian was an Illinois delegate to the 1970 White House Conference on Children.

Her other civic contributions included serving as Chairman of the Women's Division of the Chicago Urban League, vice president of the YWCA in Chicago, a member of the women's board of the University of Chicago, and a member of the board of trustees of MacMurray College and the Erikson Institute of Early Childhood Education. Racial barriers had prevented Percy Julian's appointment to a position at his alma mater, DePauw University, and elsewhere. Robert Thompson and Percy Julian worked together at Howard University, but Anna and Percy's affair in part led to both Thompson and Julian having to leave Howard in 1932.

They had two children, Faith Roselle Julian and Percy Julian Jr (an attorney), and also raised Anna's nephew, Leon "Rhoddy" Ellis. The couple and their children faced a sustained, violent campaign to stop them from living there. She later said: "We were pioneers facing the wilderness...only for us, it was a human wilderness – growing from bigotry." The town at first refused to switch the water on to the home, and the couple received threats. The house was placed under guard, but there was another bombing attempt the next June. While the Julian children were at home, dynamite was thrown from a car, but fell short of the house. The couple refused to be intimidated. Percy Julian said, "The right of a people to live where they want to, without fear, is more important than science." Rita Johnson Humanitarian Award from the Family Service & Mental Health Center of Oak Park and River Forest. 2006 Exhibition, "From Dreams to Determination: The Legacy of Drs Percy and Anna Julian", DuSable Museum of African-American History.