KC Johnson
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Robert David Johnson (born November 27, 1967), also known as KC Johnson, is an American
history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...
at
Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...
and the
Graduate Center of the City University of New York The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and postgraduate university in New York City. Formed in 1961 as Division of Graduate Studies at City University ...
. He played a major role in reporting on the Duke lacrosse rape hoax in 2006–2007 in which three members of the
Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
men's lacrosse team were falsely accused of rape. In 2007 he co-authored a book, ''Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustice of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case''.


Background

Johnson was raised in Leominster, Massachusetts, the son of Massachusetts schoolteachers. His father, Robert Johnson, was a star basketball player at Fitchburg State College, leading the nation in scoring at 39.1 points per game in 1964. Johnson's sister Kathleen was the starting point guard for the
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
women's basketball team in the early 1990s. Johnson goes by the name KC after
Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), ...
player K. C. Jones. He is also an athlete and has run numerous marathons. He currently resides in
Portland, Maine Portland is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...
and teaches at
Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...
. In 2007-08, he taught at
Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...
in Israel on a
Fulbright Scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...
.


Education

Johnson attended
Groton School Groton School is a Private school, private, college-preparatory school, college-preparatory, day school, day and boarding school located in Groton, Massachusetts, United States. It is affiliated with the Episcopal Church (United States), Episcop ...
, Massachusetts. He received his B.A. (1988) and Ph.D. (1993) from
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
, and his M.A. from the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
(1989). Johnson taught at
Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...
and
Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...
and served as visiting professor at
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
(2005) and at Tel Aviv University (2007–08), as Fulbright Distinguished Chair in the Humanities. Before earning his master's degree, Johnson worked as a track announcer for several years at Scarborough Downs. Johnson has written and edited numerous books about American history. He also co-edited several volumes of declassified transcripts and tapes from the administration of
Lyndon Baines Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of John F. Ken ...
.


Denial of tenure

In 2002 and 2003, Johnson's denial of tenure by the Brooklyn College history department became the subject of media attention. ''
Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'' columnist Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote that the root of the conflict lay partly in Johnson's "resistance to gender-driven hiring," which "didn't endear him to the department's small but vociferous faction of political ideologues—a group that the chairman, Phillip Gallagher, had himself once described, in an e-mail to Mr. Johnson, as 'academic terrorists'." Johnson had also protested a "teach-in" about 9/11, "which was freighted with panelists hostile to any U.S. military response and which offered, Mr. Johnson noted, no supporters of U.S. or Israeli policies." Colleagues began to criticize him, some of them arguing that his intense involvement in his work was, in Rabinowitz's words, "a sign of dubious mental health", and at least one of them complaining that "Johnson was asking too much of his students." An article in ''
The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper at Harvard University, an Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The newspaper was founded in 1873, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduate students. His ...
'' described clashes between Johnson and Gallagher that apparently also precipitated the denial of tenure. When Johnson sat on a search committee charged with finding an expert in 20th-century central or eastern European studies, he decided that one of the two women on the short list was unqualified. Another professor indicated, however, according to the ''Crimson'', that "the department had an 'unofficial agenda' to hire a woman for the position." Later, Gallagher criticized Johnson for admitting students to his classes who had not taken the official prerequisites, even though Gallagher, according to Johnson, had not previously enforced such rules. When Johnson went up for tenure, he was rejected on grounds of "lack of collegiality." In response, a group of 20 historians, spearheaded by the chairman of Harvard's history department, Akira Iriye (who had been Johnson's mentor and dissertation adviser), wrote a letter declaring that the tenure denial "reflects a 'culture of mediocrity' hostile to high academic standards... Introducing a redundant category of collegiality rewards young professors who 'go along to get along' rather than expressing independent scholarly judgement." Such thinking, the professors wrote, "poses a grave threat to academic freedom, since the robust and unfettered exchange of ideas is central to the pursuit of truth." "This is the first time in my experience that scholars have gotten together to protest a decision like this," Iriye told the ''Harvard Crimson''. "I am terribly upset and mystified by it. KC is a very visible scholar and a spectacular teacher." The Brooklyn College student government voted unanimously in support of Johnson, describing the refusal to grant tenure as a "violation of their academic rights". The student government also noted that "the college's conduct of the KC Johnson tenure case was described by retired Brooklyn professor and longtime PSC grievance counselor Jerome Sternstein as 'the most corrupted tenure review process I have ever come across';
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
professor Erin O’Connor described it as 'an exemplary instance of the sort of petty, internecine corruption that runs rife in academe, where accountability is minimal and the power to destroy careers is correspondingly high'; and
Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...
professor Timothy Burke described it as 'one more arrow in the quiver of academia's critics, one more revelation of the corruption of the profession as a whole, one more reason to question whether tenure ever serves the purpose for which it is allegedly designed'." The ''Chronicle of Higher Education'' ran an article about Johnson's tenure battle entitled "Tenure Madness", where it is claimed that "more than 500 Brooklyn College students signed a petition supporting Mr. Johnson. They held rallies and marches." At the History News Network website, Ronald Radosh wrote: "Mr. Johnson represents the best of what CUNY has to offer its students; educated at top universities, he left a college many aspire to teach at to come to CUNY. He found that while his students appreciated and applauded his work and his commitment, the left-wing professoriate now dominant in the academy could not tolerate his insistence on quality standards in hiring, his dismissal of politically correct criteria, and his non-ideological approach to his field." The ''New Republic'' editorialized that Brooklyn College's tenure criteria, as demonstrated by the Johnson case, "represented a grave threat to Brooklyn College's hope of ever being taken seriously as a scholarly institution." And Herbert London of the conservative
Hudson Institute Hudson Institute is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1961 in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation. Kahn ...
saw Johnson's tenure case as exemplifying the emergence in American universities of "an orthodoxy of decidedly left-wing opinion that intolerantly rejects any other point of view....it is ironic that tenure conceived as a way to insure independent thought free from censure is now employed to enforce conformity. What else can the 'lack of collegiality' possibly mean?" Johnson appealed the tenure decision to the chancellor of the
City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...
system, Matthew Goldstein. Goldstein, in turn, appointed a select faculty committee consisting of distinguished scholars from other CUNY divisions to examine the case, namely Pamela Sheingorn and David Reynolds of
Baruch College Baruch College (officially the Bernard M. Baruch College) is a public college in New York City, United States. It is a constituent college of the City University of New York system. Named for financier and statesman Bernard M. Baruch, the colle ...
and Louis Masur of the City College. In accordance with their unanimous recommendation, Goldstein promoted Johnson to a full professorship with tenure. The CUNY board of trustees unanimously supported this decision. In an editorial, the ''
New York Daily News The ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in Tabloid (newspaper format ...
'' also applauded the decision, noting that Goldstein "has been striving to upgrade CUNY and its reputation. His actions in the Johnson case are testimony to that, sending the right message: Scholarship and teaching ability come first. And academic freedom is worth fighting for". Johnson later wrote his own account of the tenure battle for the History News Network website.


Duke lacrosse case

Johnson played a prominent role in chronicling the Duke lacrosse case scandal, criticizing what he saw as violations of
due process Due process of law is application by the state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to a case so all legal rights that are owed to a person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual p ...
that characterized the case in a blog entitled "Durham in Wonderland", which he created solely for the purpose. Johnson's Durham in Wonderland contains one of the largest archives of events related to the case. Johnson holds critical views of some of Duke's faculty and staff, known as the Group of 88, and referred to them as a "rush-to-judgment mob" who had published an ad condemning players and encouraging protests against the falsely accused, much before the investigations had been concluded. One of the accused, Reade Seligmann, thanked Johnson publicly, stating: "I am forever grateful for all of the care, concern, and encouragement I received from my remarkable girlfriend Brooke and her family, the Delbarton community, the town of Essex Fells, KC Johnson, and everyone else who chose to stand up, use their voice, and challenge the actions of a rogue district attorney." The prosecutor, Mike Nifong, was disbarred, fined, and sentenced to one day in jail. Charles Piot, a Duke professor of cultural anthropology, criticized Johnson's role in the case, writing that Johnson "used the aseto demonize faculty and further ideological agendas that are part of a broad-scale right-wing attack on progressive faculty across the nation." Johnson replied to Piot on his blog. Johnson would go on to join Stuart Taylor, Jr. in co-writing the book ''Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustice of the Duke Lacrosse Case'' (). It was published in September 2007. The ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' book review referred to the book as a "riveting narrative" that has made a "gripping contribution to the literature of the wrongly accused." James Earl Coleman, Jr. and Prasad Kasibhatla, Duke professors, criticized Taylor and Johnson for "biased and inaccurate rhetoric". Johnson and Taylor replied to Coleman and Kasibhatla. In December 2024, Crystal Mangum admitted, during a December 11, 2024 podcast interview, that she "made up a story that wasn't true" about the white lacrosse players who attended a party where she was hired to be a stripper.


Political views

Johnson is a registered Democrat. He supported Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and vehemently opposed the candidacy of
John Edwards Johnny Reid Edwards (born June 10, 1953) is an American lawyer and former politician who represented North Carolina in the United States Senate from 1999 to 2005. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the vice presidential nominee under ...
that year. Johnson has condemned the
National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) was a professional accreditor focused on accrediting teacher education programs in U.S. colleges and universities. It was founded in 1954 and was recognized as an accreditor by ...
for promoting "
social justice Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...
" as an essential element of teacher training, and for enacting policies which he argues are clearly intended "to screen out potential public school teachers who hold undesirable political beliefs."


Works


Books

*co-author (with Stuart Taylor), ''The Campus Rape Frenzy: The Attack on Due Process at America's Universities'', Encounter Books, 2017. *''All the Way with LBJ: The 1964 Presidential Election'', Cambridge University Press, 2009. *co-author (with Stuart Taylor), ''Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case,'' Thomas Dunne Books, 2007. *''Congress and the Cold War'', Cambridge University Press, 2005. (winner of the 2006 D.B. Hardeman Prize) *co-editor (with Kent Germany), ''The Presidential Recordings: Lyndon B. Johnson'', volume 3, W.W. Norton, 2005. *co-editor (with David Shreve), ''The Presidential Recordings: Lyndon B. Johnson'', volume 2, W.W. Norton, 2005. *''January 20, 1961: The American Dream'', DTV Publishers, 1999. (click DTV and then Katalog) *''Ernest Gruening and the American Dissenting Tradition'', Harvard University Press, 1998. *''The Peace Progressives and American Foreign Relations'', Harvard University Press, 1995. *Editor, ''On Cultural Ground: Essays in International History'', Imprint Publications, 1994.


Awards

*PSC-CUNY Award, 2002, History: "Running from Ahead: Lyndon Johnson and the 1964 Presidential Election." *Philip Merrill Award for Outstanding Contributions to Liberal Arts Education, 2009


See also

* 2006 Duke University lacrosse case


References


External links


Official page at Brooklyn College
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Kc 1967 births Living people 21st-century American essayists 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers American male bloggers American bloggers American political writers Harvard University alumni University of Chicago alumni Historians of the United States Brooklyn College faculty People from Scarborough, Maine CUNY Graduate Center faculty People from Leominster, Massachusetts Groton School alumni Academic staff of Tel Aviv University Arizona State University faculty Williams College faculty Historians from Massachusetts American male non-fiction writers