Author and Warner Pacific University president to speak at George Fox University on civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois Feb. 22

NEWBERG, Ore. – George Fox University welcomes Warner Pacific University president Dr. Brian Johnson to campus for a lecture on W.E.B. Du Bois on Thursday, Feb. 22. His talk, scheduled for a 7 p.m. start in Room 105 of the Hoover Academic Building, is entitled, “W.E.B. Du Bois in African American Intellectual and Christian History.”

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, commonly known as W.E.B. Du Bois, was an intellectual, sociologist and civil rights activist whose contributions significantly impacted the African American struggle for equality and justice. Born in 1868, he became the first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard University. He cofounded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and played a crucial role in advocating for civil rights, racial equality, and education.

Dr. Johnson has received a number of fellowships, including a 2004-2005 non-resident fellowship within the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Studies at Harvard University. That led him to author the biography, W.E.B. Du Bois: Toward Agnosticism, 1868-1934. In the book, Johnson describes the evolution of religious views from Du Bois's birth until his resignation as editor of Crisis magazine in 1934.

Dr. Johnson is a sought-after speaker, accomplished professor, scholar and academic administrator. He serves as the first minority president in Warner Pacific University’s 83-year history. He received his PhD in English from the University of South Carolina and his MA in English from The University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Before taking the helm at Warner Pacific, he was the vice president/senior campus administrator at Mercy College in Manhattan. And, from 2014 to 2017, he served as the president and CEO at Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama. He also served as interim vice president for strategic planning and institutional effectiveness and assistant provost/assistant vice president for academics at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee.

George Fox University is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as a “Best National University” and by The Wall Street Journal as the top private college in Oregon. More than 4,000 students attend classes on the university’s campus in Newberg, Oregon, and at teaching centers in Portland and Redmond, Oregon. George Fox offers more than 60 academic programs at the undergraduate level, degree-completion programs for working adults, and 20 masters and doctoral degrees.

Contact:
Rob Felton
George Fox University
rfelton@georgefox.edu