Johnson County, Iowa, Renames Itself After A Different Johnson

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Johnson County, Iowa, has a new name.

It will still be Johnson County. But henceforth, the county is taking its name from a different Johnson: Lulu Merle Johnson, a professor and historian who was the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in Iowa.

It was originally named for Richard Mentor Johnson, who served as vice president under President Martin Van Buren.

Lulu Merle Johnson was born in 1907 in a small town called Gravity in southwestern Iowa, Johnson County's board of supervisors wrote. Her father was born into slavery and went on to work as a barber and her mother was the daughter of freed slaves. When she enrolled at the State University of Iowa in 1925, she was one of 14 Black women at the university. She completed bachelor's and master's degrees there by 1930 and her Ph.D. in 1941.

"Through her determination to succeed despite discrimination and adversity, [she] embodied the values, ideals, and morals which the people of Johnson County strive to preserve and uphold," the board of supervisors wrote in the resolution they approved Thursday.