Jeh Vincent Johnson, Architect; Lecturer

From the Saunders Family History Book

Born on July 8, 1931, in Nashville, TN; married Norma, 1956; children: Jeh Charles, Marguerite Marie

Education: Columbia College, AB, 1953; Columbia University, MA, architecture, 1958.

Military/Wartime Service: United States Army, 1953-54.

Memberships: National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), co-founder, 1971.

Career

Paul R. Williams, architect and designer, 1956; Adams and Woodbridge, Architects, architect and designer, 1958-62; Gindele and Johnson, architect and designer, 1962-80; Vassar College, lecturer in art and design, 1964-2001; LeGendre, Johnson, McNeil Architects, partner, 1980-90; Jeh V. Johnson, FAIA, architect, 1990-.

Life's Work

In a career spanning over forty years Jeh Vincent Johnson has remained committed to the idea that designers should take account of their social responsibilities and attempt to provide buildings that respond to "human emotional needs," as he told Contemporary Black Biography (CBB). He has followed this principle both as a teacher at Vassar College and in his private architecture practice. Besides numerous churches, colleges, and community buildings he is responsible for designing over 4,300 housing units, many of which were developed under government programs during the 1960s to provide good-quality, low-cost housing for underprivileged groups. He is known as a thoughtful designer, an inspirational teacher, and a forceful, untiring advocate for female and minority architects.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 8, 1931, Johnson was the youngest of five children, though his twin sister died soon after birth. He grew up on and around the campus of Fisk University, where his father, Charles Spurgeon Johnson, was professor of sociology and later the university's president. Johnson's mother presided over a home that welcomed visitors and was always busy with guests, boarders, and family members. Although his parents were Baptist and Methodist, Johnson first attended the St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School and then Pearl High School in Nashville. Though segregated, St. Vincent's in particular had an enviable academic record and provided Johnson with a good early education.

Benefited from Excellent Training

Johnson was a bright student in high school. When he graduated, the Dean of Columbia College at Columbia University invited him to apply for the Columbia College National Scholarship for 1953. The advantage of studying there was that he could begin his professional studies in architecture a year early, in his senior year. He entered the School of Architecture, where he became President of the Student Body.

In between his first and second years at graduate school, Johnson was drafted into the Army, rising to the rank of sergeant during his twenty-two months' service. He returned to Columbia where his architectural heroes were Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier. Johnson was later influenced by Albert Mayer and Clarence Stein. He had a summer job working for black architect Paul R. Williams in Los Angeles. Williams was known as "the architect to the stars" and Johnson felt that the experience of working for him not only made him a better designer, but also gave him a new perspective on architecture itself. He told CBB that "My work with him and his easy going, eclectic way of doing things stood in striking contrast to the rather rigid functionalism that was current in the eastern schools."

After graduating in 1958, Johnson won the William Kinne Fellows Fellowship for travel. He was already interested in designing multi-family housing and Europe was at the cutting edge of that kind of work. While still a graduate student Johnson had met and married Norma Edelin and she accompanied him for the first few months of his trip. In all, Johnson and his used VW covered 10,000 miles in the eight months of his stay in Europe, visiting countries as far apart as Italy and Sweden.

Johnson has said that his studies of group housing projects and his talks with European planners served him well in his later professional career. He was particularly impressed by the Stockholm New Town Hall, which he thought had managed to "incorporate vernacular traditions and patterns into a major public structure that has importance and dignity, while retaining a tactility and humane scale that is most appealing."

Opened Private Practice

On his return to the United States in 1959 Johnson entered private practice in Hudson Valley, New York, with his college friend William Gindele. Most of their work was on community buildings: multi-family housing, community centers, churches, schools, and single-family homes. By 1967 Johnson had become so successful in the field of multi-family housing that he was contacted by the White House to serve on President Lyndon B. Johnson's National Commission on Urban Problems. At the time many American cities were suffering the after-effects of rioting and looting and minority groups were deeply resentful of the conditions they felt were forced upon them by local governments. The Douglas Commission, as it was known, met in eighteen urban locations over the course of two years. So dangerous was the atmosphere that there were often offered a police escort, though they rarely accepted. As Johnson has noted the work of the commission was received without fanfare, but most of its recommendations for ways of rationalizing taxation, construction processes, and alleviating segregation have since been adopted.

The Douglas Commission led Johnson to involvement with the American Institute of Architects (AIA), where he became chair of the National Committee on Housing. He served on numerous committees and eventually became chair of the committee for the 1974 national convention. He declined the nomination for national director of the AIA because he felt it would interfere with his other work. In 1977 he was elected to the AIA's college of fellows, the highest honor for any practicing American architect.

Much of Johnson's work centered on Poughkeepsie and the area around Vassar College in New York, where he taught for thirty-seven years. It includes the former Poughkeepsie Day School building, the Susan Stein Shiva Theater, the Poughkeepsie Catharine Street Center and Library, and the ALANA Center on the Vassar campus. In the late 1990s he converted the Poughkeepsie Day School building, one of his own designs on the Vassar campus from 1963, into a college office, lab, and classroom block.

Inspired His Students

In 1964 Johnson began teaching at Vassar College, where he had a studio in architectural drawing and design, and where he encouraged students not only to learn draftsmanship, but to think about the human value of their designs. Johnson was always been committed to the idea that thought and reflection are a crucial part of the design process and he inspired his students to be conscious of what they were trying to do in their designs.

Johnson's work at Vassar was also instrumental in encouraging women into architecture. In 1964 very few women entered the profession, yet by the end of the twentieth century many graduate schools had equal numbers of men and women. Johnson's approach to encouraging female architects was characteristically pragmatic and generous. He told CBB that "We had a lot to do with changing that, I think, partly through personal contacts, partly by pushing students to reach beyond their expectations of acceptance, and partly by involving them in the dynamics of my own practice."

In 1971 Johnson and four male colleagues at the AIA national convention in Detroit formed the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) because they felt that minority architects were unknown to the American public. They were especially keen to publicize the profession to young black and Latino students. By 2003 NOMA represented hundreds of minority men and women, with chapters in all the major architecture schools in America. In 1997 Johnson was awarded a special citation from the New York chapter of the AIA for his advocacy on behalf of equal opportunity and housing issues.

Johnson's influence on urban development, on young minority and female architects, and on the profession as a whole, is substantial. As a teacher he has inspired hundreds of students to go on to successful careers as architects and as teachers in design schools around the country, while his commitment to fairness and humane values in architecture and urban design has improved the quality of the lives of thousands of Americans.

Awards

AIA, Students Medal, 1958; William Kinne Fellowship, 1959; Fellowship of American Institute of Architects, 1977; New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects, special citation, 1997.

New York Times, September 11, 1949; December 29, 1956; November 4, 1973.

On-line

"Jeh Vincent Johnson." Biography Resource Center, www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC (February 3, 2004). National Organization of Minority Architects, www.noma.net (March 1, 2004).

"Three Faculty Members Retire," Vassar Today: The Alumni Quarterly, www.aavc.vassar.edu/vq/fall2001/articles/today/faculty_retire.html (March 1, 2004).

Other

Additional material for this profile was obtained through a written interview with Jeh V. Johnson on February 3, 2004, and from documents he kindly supplied.

— Chris Routledge

Vincent Elsworth Saunders - Early Days

Letter to Ann Camille - 4/5/2001

From the Saunders Family History Book

I was born in Chicago at 6608 Eberhart Ave. on Dec. 30, 1916. The owners  of the two-apartment house were the Ricter Family (Germans) Mr. Richter was imprisoned because of world war I german sympathies. I remember him as a nice old carpenter who lost the use of one arm. The Richters lived on the first floor, and we lived on the second floor. The doctor thar delivered me was Dr. Lawrence Blanchet, a creole... a home delivery.

The community of Woodlawn had perhaps several dozen colored people of mixed ancestry, I think the area was built to accompany the popularity of the area during the Columbia Exhibition of 1893.  It was a lower middle class workers neighborhood-chiefly Irish, German and later Polish.

At the James McCosh Elementary school, located at 65th and Champlain, there were only two colored kids in kindergarten class in 1922. By 1930, there were only 2 white boys in the eigth grade graduation class due to the exodus of white people in an effort to avoid mixing with black people and accecelerated throgh the general use of automobiles.

The Al-Vin Dasant was the last of several dance halls that were operated by a partnership of Vincent Saunders and Alfonso Young. the Al-Vin was operated under lease from the Royal Circle of Friends, Dr. L.K. Williams president, it was located on the NE corner of 51st and Michigan. The property had been a Greek Temple, and previously housed various meeting rooms and stores.

The Al-Vin Dance Hall was run on Mondays and Friday nights from approximately from about 1926 to 1930.  The stock market crash and the economic depression impacted the business. Even the Savoy ballroom, At 47th and King drive had to close because they couldn"t pay their electric bill. The Al-Vin hall location later became a kind of gambling joint. Before the Alvin Dasant there had been Dreamland, The Vincennes Hotel, and Warick Hall. The Warick Hall was located on 47th Street at about Forrestville.

During the days of its operation, my mother (Mamie Holiday) sold tickets and other relatives operated the check room for coats and hats... The use of Marijuana made it hazardous to conduct social dancing , after the close of the Al-Vin Hall, my father  Vincent Sr., just provided Claude Barnett with graphic artist services on an occasional basis for income. 

I recall that one of the jobs he got was the paste-up of a promotional press booklet for Mr. Barnett's wife, Etta Moten Barnett, she was a singer of note; and had sung "My Forgotten Man" in the MGM film production of Gold Diggers of 1933.   My own association with Claude Barnett was an unsuccesful attempt to sell the Associated Negro Press as to a medium to reach the Afro-American market.... as a special market.  As a young man with family problems I could not pursue the goal with enough diligence.  The time was in the late 1940's and early 1950's I was offering public relations- not  advertising services. 

The other addresses where we lived were 6639 Rhodes Ave, until 1929; 6745 Langley Ave, until 1932; 6725 Evans Ave, until 1944; 43rd and Forrestville (briefly after World War II; 9335 Forest Ave about 1945 until 1950; and we lived at 5525 Lafayette when you were born , then 9718 Indiana, When I married Mitzie on Crystal Ave Elgin, Ill and then moved to lake meadows where valerie was a baby, thereafter in 1152 W. 95th Place and in 1966 we moved to Richton Park Ill and finally to Dalton, Mn in 1985.  Whew! Although it does not seem like it, I have lived here longer than any other place.

I was baptized at Holy Cross Church in Chicago as a baby.  It was chiefly an Irish catholic church; and by the age of 12 yrs I became unaware that I was an unwanted outsider.  I was confirmed in the catholic church in the Black St. Elizabeth Church parish by Cardinal Mundelien but I really have no enthusiam for churchgoing.  I was  pressured by my mother to attend. By the time I was 14, my reading in the Kimbark branch of Chicago library led me to question the benefit of any religion in my life. I had discovered that people of Christian and Islamic religion were slaves & slaveholders of peoples of other faiths.

During my marriage to Doris, I briefly considered the Unitarian faith. Doris and I attended the Untarian services at the Abraham Lincoln Center on 39th & Langley, we were married by the Pastor, Unitarians were not an organized religious group engaged in slave exploitation, and seemed more tolerant. As I recall, Ann you were blessed at a service at the Unitarian church, Your God parents were Esther Semper , God mother, and John Johnson, God father. They both did a fine job in your behalf.

That's it!

Love   Daddy  Vincent

Sam Smith and Mary Carty

About Sam & Mary

From Saunders Family History Book

According to family history, Alice Carty (Clarty or Redmond) arrived in the United States from County Cork (Cork Harbor), Wexford, Ireland.  Samuel Smith (also know as Black Sam) found Alice Carty weeping as she sat near the dock at New York harbor.  She had expected to be met by her promised husband when she arrived in New York (1860-1861?).  However, to her dismay, she discovered that he had died prior to her arrival.  She was utterly distraught.

Sam Smith befriended her & introduced her to his employer.  At the time, Sam was working as a butler.  His employer agreed to hire Alice as an upstairs maid. 

Widespread poverty, disease, and ethnic gang violence defined the period around the docks in NYC at the time.  And ongoing race riots between Irish-American & free African-American residents of New York City occurred between 1849 - 1863.

Alice attended the Five Points mission school in New York.  The school records are being maintained at Duke University.   (no family investigation / verification at this time).

Oral family history also records that Alice Carty Smith & daughter Mary Jane Smith were living in Baltimore, MD at some time during 1873. 

No information is available regarding the whereabouts of Samuel Smith, Sr. or Samuel Smith, Jr. during this period. 

 According to Charles Johnson, Jr.  (during 2004 family reunion);  Sam Smith, Sr. died sometime in 1925.

Atlanta's Continuing Struggle for a More Representative Judiciary

Interview with Charles S. Johnson, May 9, 2012

Who wears the robe matters.

 If you care about a fully-functioning judiciary - a judiciary that reflects the diversity of the community it serves - get involved.

First Hand Accounts of the Dinner that Launched the Harlem Renaissance

From Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, May, 1924

The Debut of the Younger School of Negro Writers

Interest among the literati of New York in the emerging group of younger Negro writers found an expression in a recent meeting of the Writers’ Guild, an informal group whose membership includes Countee Cullen, Eric Walrond, Langston Hughes, Jessie Fauset, Gwendolyn Bennett, Harold Jackson, Regina Anderson, and a few others. The occasion was a “coming out party,” at the Civic Club, on March 21 – a date selected around the appearance of the novel “There is Confusion” by Jessie Fauset.  The responses to the invitations sent out were immediate and enthusiastic and the few regrets that came in were genuine.

Although there was no formal, prearranged program, the occasion provoked a surprising spontaneity of expression both from the members of the writers’ group and from the distinguished visitors present.

A brief interpretation of the object of the Guild was given by Charles S. Johnson, Editor of Opportunity, who introduced Alain Locke, virtual dean of the movement, who had been selected to act as Master of Ceremonies and to interpret the new currents manifest in the literature of this younger school.  Alain Locke has been one of the most resolute stimulators of this group, and although he has been writing longer than most of them, he is distinctly a part of the movement.  One excerpt reflects the tenor of his remarks. He said: :They sense within their group – meaning the Negro group – a spiritual wealth which if they can properly expound will be ample for a new judgment and re-appraisal of the race.”

Horace Liveright, publisher, told about the difficulties, even yet, of marketing books of admitted merit. The value of a book cannot be gauged by the sales. He regarded Jean Toomer’s “Cane” as one of the most interesting that he had handled, and yet, less than 500 copies had been sold. In his exhortations to the younger group he warned against the danger of reflecting in one’s writings the “inferiority complex” which is so insistently and frequently apparent in an overbalanced emphasis on “impossibly good” fiction types.  He felt that to do the best writing it was necessary to give a rounded picture which included bad types as well as good ones since both of these go to make up life.

Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois made his first public appearance and address since his return to the country from Africa.  He was introduced by the charman with soft seriousness as a representative of the “older school.” Dr. Du Bois explained that the Negro writers of a few years back were of necessity pioneers, and much of their style was forced upon them by the barriers against publication of literature about Negroes of any sort. 

James Weldon Johnson was introduced as an anthologist of Negro verse and one who had given invaluable encouragement to the work of this younger group.

Carl Van Doren, Editor of the Century, spoke on the future of imaginative writing among Negroes. His remarks are given in full elsewhere in this issue.

Another young Negro writer, Walter F. White, whose novel “fire in Flint” has been accepted for publication, also spoke and made reference to the passing of the stereotypes of the Negroes of fiction.

Professor Montgomery Gregory of Howard University, who came from Washington for the meeting, talked about the possibilities of Negroes in drama and told of the work of several talented Negro writers in his field, some of whose plays were just coming into recognition.

Another visitor from Philadelphia, Dr. Albert C. Barnes, art connoisseur and foremost authority in America on primitive Negro art, sketched the growing interest in this art which had such tremendous on the entire modern art movement.

Miss. Jessie Fauset was given a place of distinction on the program. She paid here respects to those friends who had contributed to her accomplishments, acknowledging a particular debt to her “best friend and severest critic,” Dr. Du Bois.

The original poems read by Countee Cullen were received with a tremendous ovation. Miss Gwendolyn Bennett’s poem, dedicated to the occasion, is reproduced. It is called

“To Usward”

Let us be still

As ginger jars are still

Upon a Chinese shelf,

And let us be contained

By enemies of Self. . . .

Not still with lethargy and sloth,

But quiet with the pushing of our growth;

Not self-contained with smug identity,

But conscious of the strength in entity.

If any have a song to sing that’s different from the rest,

Oh, let him sing before the urgency of Youth’s behest!

And some of us have songs to sing

Of jungle heat and fires;

And some of us are solemn grown

With pitiful desires;

And there are those who feel the pull

Of seas beneath the skies;

And some there be who want to croon Of Negro lullabies.

We claim no part with racial dearth,

We want to sing the songs of birth!

And so we stand like ginger jars,

Like ginger jars bound round

With dust and age;

Like jars of ginger we are sealed

By nature’s heritage.

But let us break the seal of years

With pungent thrusts of song

For there is joy in long dried tears,

For whetted passions of a throng!

Among the guests present were Paul Kellogg, Editor of the Survey; Devere Allen, Editor of The World Tomorrow; Freda Kirchwey and Evans Clark of the Nation; Mr. and Mrs. Frederick L. Allen of Harper Brothers; Mr. and Mrs. Arthur B. Spingarn; Mr. and Mrs. Horace Liveright; L. Hollingsworth Wood; Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Kinkle Jones; Genrgette Carneal; Georgia Douglas Johnson of Washington, D.C.; Louis Weitzenkorn of the New York World; A. Granville Dill; Mr. and Mrs. George E. Haynes; Mr. and Mrs. Graham R. Taylor; Mr. and Mrs. John Daniels; A.A. Shomburg; Eva D. Bowles of the Y.M.C.A.; Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Moorland; Mr. and Mrs. Walter Bartlett; Talcott Williams; Mr. and Mrs. Arthur C. Holden; Mr. and Mrs. James H. Hubert; Ottie Graham; Eunice Hunton; Anna L. Holbrook; Crystal Bird; Dr. and Mrs. E.P. Roberts; J. A. Rogers; Cleveland Allen, Mrs. Gertrude McDougal; William Andrews; Mabel Bird; Dr. and Mrs. Matthew Boutte; William Holly; Barger Baldwin; Mary White Ovington; and others, numbering about one hundred and ten.

Of those who could not come Oswald Garrison Villard, Editor of the nation, wrote

“Nothing would give me greater pleasure than attending the dinner to be given to the young Negro writers on the 21^st, but unhappily it is necessary for me to be out of town on that date.”

From Herbert Baylard Swope, Editor of the New York World:

“I am heartily in sympathy with the purpose of your dinner on the 21^st and I should be glad top go were it any other date but that.  You have my best wishes for the complete success of your ‘coming our’ party.”

Dorothy Scarborough, author of In the Land of Cotton,” said:

“I think your plan is an admirable one, and I send you my heartiest good wishes for the success of all your writers.  I have always taken a great interest in the talents which your race possesses, and I rejoice in your every achievement.”

George W. Ochs Oakes, Editor of Current History, wrote:

“I wish to commend you for the steps that have been taken in this direction and believe that it will do a great deal to stimulate serious intellectual and literary work among Negroes. I have found evidences of striking literary capacity and fine intellectual expression among the young Negro writers who have contributed to our magazine.”

The Younger Generation of Negro Writers

By Carl Van Doren

I have genuine faith in the future of imaginative writing among Negroes in the United States. This is not due to any mere personal interest in the writers of the race whom I happen to know. It is due to a feeling that the Negroes of the country are in a remarkable strategic position with reference to the new literary age which seems to be impending.

Long oppressed and handicapped, they have gathered stores of emotion and are ready to burst forth with a new eloquence once they discovery adequate mediums.  Being, however, as a race not given go self-destroying bitterness, they will, I think strike a happy balance between rage and complacency – that balance in which passion and humor are somehow united in the best of all possible amalgams for the creative artist.

The Negroes, it must be remembered, are our oldest American minority. First slavery and then neglect have forced them into a limited channel of existence. Once they find a voice, they will bring  a fresh and fierce sense of reality to their vision of human life on this continent, a vision seen from a novel angle by a part of the population which cannot be duped by the bland optimism of the majority.

Nor will their vision, I think, be that solely of dramatic censure and dissent, such as might be expected of them in view of all they have endured from majority rule.  Richly gifted by nature with distinctive traits, they will be artists while they are being critics. They will look at the same world that the white poets and novelists and dramatists look at, yet, arraigning or enjoying it, will keep in their modes of utterance the sympathies, the memories, the rhythms of their ancient stock.

That Negro writers must long continue to be propagandists, I do not deny. The wrongs of their people are too close to them to be overlooked. But it happens that in this case the vulgar forms of propaganda are all unnecessary. The facts about Negroes in the United States are themselves propaganda – devastating and unanswerable. A Negro novelist who tells the simple story of any aspiring colored man or woman will call as as will a bugle the minds of all just persons, white or black, to listen to him.

But if the reality of Negro life is itself dramatic, there are of course still other elements, particularly the emotional power with which Negroes live – or at least to me seem to live. What American literature decidedly needs at the moment is color, music, gusto, the free expression of gay or desperate moods. If the Negroes are not in a position to contribute these items, I do not know what Americans are.

Say "Yes" to Fisk Fundraising Reception, April 21, 2012

Since 1866, Fisk University has seen its’ graduates impact our nation and the world across many fields; most notably medicine, arts and music, politics, public policy and even sports. Fisk continues to be highly respected for its’ academic programs as it is currently the #1 producer of African-Americans who obtain masters degrees in physics. However, despite this significant achievement and other academic success, our beloved university finds itself at a critical crossroad.

Unfortunately, the university is currently faced with declining enrollments, financial deficits, brand erosion and the prospect of losing its’ accreditation. While our alumni giving over the five-year period ending June 30, 2011 averaged $1, 070, 659.13, our 20 university trustees gave an average of $44, 428.78 over the same period, significantly dwarfing the amount each alumni gives on an annual basis. As friends of Fisk and people of good will we must do better!

Despite its academic record, Fisk has seen its student enrollment decline almost 58% since 2007 having at that time over 940 students, declining to 550 by the end of the 2011 school year. Yet, these challenges, while daunting, if seen through a different lens offer the institution, its’ future president, alumni and supporters the opportunity to truly transform Fisk University by re-inventing itself for the 21st century. But we must deal with our current situation first in order to begin anew. SACS, our accrediting body, is requiring us to raise $8.5M by June 30, 2012.

Our approach to addressing this critical moment in our history must be done with a "Passion for Fisk" like we have never before exhibited, demonstrating energetic endurance and patience with the expectation that something ‘great’ is going to happen!” This fundraising event on April 21^st in Atlanta is an important first step in this process. Similar efforts are taking place in other cities.

Now is the time for us all to take notice of the university’s current circumstances with foresight and understanding, however, time is of the essence and we must respond with a sense of urgency and be willing to stand together and boldly announce that:

I am personally joining with “Atlanta Friends of Fisk to

“Say Yes” to Fisk University’s

commitment to the transformation and reclamation of the title of “Best in Class,”

living up to our motto that

“Fisk Cultivates Scholars and Leaders One by One.”

Say "Yes” to Fisk Atlanta Friends of Fisk Fundraising Reception

April 21, 2012, at 6:00pm

The Borghese, 3286 Northside Parkway, Atlanta, GA, 30327

Commitment: $1000.00 per person or more

Inquiries: ld@hope4360.com

Atlanta Friends of Fisk Event Committee

P. Andrew Patterson, '65, Lawrence Drake II, 76, Robyn Sims, 76,

Gwenne Campbell, '74, Linda Gulley, '65, Bernadette Jones, '65

(This event is not affiliated with the Atlanta Fisk Club)

Charles Johnson | Holland & Knight
Partner
1201 West Peachtree Street, N.E., One Atlantic Center, Suite 2000 | Atlanta GA 30309
Phone 404.817.8530 | Fax 404.881.0470
charles.johnson@hklaw.com | www.hklaw.com

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