KC Johnson
Encyclopedia
Dr. Robert David Johnson (born 1967), also known as KC Johnson, is a history
professor
at Brooklyn College
and the City University of New York Graduate Center
. He is a prolific critic of Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong and some members of the Duke University faculty and administration concerning the 2006 Duke University lacrosse case, via his blog
, "Durham in Wonderland", and a co-authored book, Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustice of the Duke Lacrosse Case. Professor Johnson's trademark is the bow tie, which he can often be seen wearing at events and conferences.
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
women's basketball team in the early 1990s. KC is also an athlete and has run numerous marathons.
He currently resides in New York, New York. In 2007-2008, he taught at Tel Aviv University
in Israel
on a Fulbright Scholarship
.
from Harvard University
in 1988, his master's degree
from the University of Chicago
in 1989, and his Ph.D
from Harvard in 1993.
Prior to his current appointment, he has had teaching or faculty appointments at Harvard, Arizona State University
, and Williams College
. Before earning his Master's degree, Johnson worked as a track announcer at Scarborough Downs
.
Johnson has written and edited numerous books focusing on American history. He also co-edited several volumes of declassified transcripts and tapes from the administration of Lyndon Baines Johnson.
at Brooklyn College became the subject of significant media attention when he was originally turned down for tenure in the history department. Although he had received strongly favorable evaluations in earlier years, his request for tenure was rejected due to an alleged lack of "collegiality".
Part of the controversy, which would become the subject of numerous news articles, editorials and op-ed columns involved a discussion about the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon
, empanelled by CUNY administrators shortly after the attacks had taken place. Arriving at the panel discussion with a group of students, Professor Johnson questioned the makeup of the group charged with discussing the subject of the attacks and how they should be addressed by American policymakers, a panel that he alleged was comprised strictly of individuals critical of American foreign policy and that of America's allies.
After an extensive legal and public relations battle, he eventually received tenure on appeal to the chancellor of the City University of New York system, Matthew Goldstein
.
s about the Duke case. At a press conference where the accused players were declared innocent, one of them thanked Johnson for his blogging.
One opponent of Johnson, Duke faculty member and Group of 88 member Charles Piot, wrote a personal essay alleging that Johnson engages in "caricature" and "demonization" as part of a "rhetorical strategy" characteristic of "totalitarian thought and authoritarian regimes the world over". Johnson later responded to these criticisms, noting that Piot had attributed to Johnson claims that Johnson had never made about "a group of faculty [being] in some way responsible for a university's, a town's, and indeed an entire nation's 'rush to judgment'", had ignored clear contemporaneous evidence ("... Piot claimed that the 'intent' of Group members 'was never to speak to the events at the lacrosse party.' ... he asserted, 'the ad in question was never about the lacrosse players nor about the party they hosted in spring 2006.' ... Unfortunately for Piot, Wahneema Lubiano, the author of the ad, said exactly the opposite—in the cover e-mail inviting professors to sign the ad. Wrote she, 'African & African-American Studies is placing an ad in The Chronicle about the lacrosse team incident.'") and had neglected to mention a conflict of interest by discussing Johnson's alleged misjudgment of fellow Group of 88 member, Anne Allison
, without disclosing that Allison was Piot's life partner
.
Johnson teamed up with Stuart Taylor Jr.
to write a book about the case, Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustice of the Duke Lacrosse Case (ISBN 0-312-36912-3). It was published in September 2007.
. He supported Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign
.
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
at Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
and the City University of New York Graduate Center
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
. He is a prolific critic of Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong and some members of the Duke University faculty and administration concerning the 2006 Duke University lacrosse case, via his blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
, "Durham in Wonderland", and a co-authored book, Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustice of the Duke Lacrosse Case. Professor Johnson's trademark is the bow tie, which he can often be seen wearing at events and conferences.
Personal background
Johnson was raised in Scarborough, Maine, the son of Maine schoolteachers. His father, Robert Johnson, was a star basketball player at Fitchburg State CollegeFitchburg State College
Fitchburg State University, also known as Fitchburg State, is a four-year public institution of higher learning with a compact urban campus, located in the city of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Fitchburg State University has over 3,500 undergraduate and over 1650 graduate/continuing education...
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
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
women's basketball team in the early 1990s. KC is also an athlete and has run numerous marathons.
He currently resides in New York, New York. In 2007-2008, he taught at Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
on a Fulbright Scholarship
Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the...
.
Education and career
Johnson received his Bachelor of ArtsBachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1988, his master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
in 1989, and his Ph.D
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
from Harvard in 1993.
Prior to his current appointment, he has had teaching or faculty appointments at Harvard, Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
, and Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
. Before earning his Master's degree, Johnson worked as a track announcer at Scarborough Downs
Scarborough Downs
Scarborough Downs is an American horse racing track located in Scarborough, Maine. Scarborough Downs is Maine's largest race track. It is home to a restaurant as well as a grandstand for race viewing....
.
Johnson has written and edited numerous books focusing on American history. He also co-edited several volumes of declassified transcripts and tapes from the administration of Lyndon Baines Johnson.
Tenure battle
In 2002 and 2003, Johnson's application for tenureTenure
Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause.-19th century:...
at Brooklyn College became the subject of significant media attention when he was originally turned down for tenure in the history department. Although he had received strongly favorable evaluations in earlier years, his request for tenure was rejected due to an alleged lack of "collegiality".
Part of the controversy, which would become the subject of numerous news articles, editorials and op-ed columns involved a discussion about the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
and the Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
, empanelled by CUNY administrators shortly after the attacks had taken place. Arriving at the panel discussion with a group of students, Professor Johnson questioned the makeup of the group charged with discussing the subject of the attacks and how they should be addressed by American policymakers, a panel that he alleged was comprised strictly of individuals critical of American foreign policy and that of America's allies.
After an extensive legal and public relations battle, he eventually received tenure on appeal to the chancellor of the City University of New York system, Matthew Goldstein
Matthew Goldstein
Matthew Goldstein is the current Chancellor of The City University of New York . He was appointed Chancellor on September 1, 1999, and is the first City University graduate to head the University, having received his undergraduate degree from City College...
.
Duke Lacrosse case
Johnson runs Durham-in-Wonderland, one of the most prominent blogBlog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s about the Duke case. At a press conference where the accused players were declared innocent, one of them thanked Johnson for his blogging.
One opponent of Johnson, Duke faculty member and Group of 88 member Charles Piot, wrote a personal essay alleging that Johnson engages in "caricature" and "demonization" as part of a "rhetorical strategy" characteristic of "totalitarian thought and authoritarian regimes the world over". Johnson later responded to these criticisms, noting that Piot had attributed to Johnson claims that Johnson had never made about "a group of faculty [being] in some way responsible for a university's, a town's, and indeed an entire nation's 'rush to judgment'", had ignored clear contemporaneous evidence ("... Piot claimed that the 'intent' of Group members 'was never to speak to the events at the lacrosse party.' ... he asserted, 'the ad in question was never about the lacrosse players nor about the party they hosted in spring 2006.' ... Unfortunately for Piot, Wahneema Lubiano, the author of the ad, said exactly the opposite—in the cover e-mail inviting professors to sign the ad. Wrote she, 'African & African-American Studies is placing an ad in The Chronicle about the lacrosse team incident.'") and had neglected to mention a conflict of interest by discussing Johnson's alleged misjudgment of fellow Group of 88 member, Anne Allison
Anne Allison
Anne Allison is a professor of cultural anthropology at Duke University in the United States, specializing in contemporary Japanese society. She wrote the book Nightwork on hostess clubs and Japanese corporate culture after having worked at a hostess club in Tokyo.She received her BA from the...
, without disclosing that Allison was Piot's life partner
Life partner
A life partner is a romantic or otherwise very close friend for life. The partners can be of the same or opposite sexes, married or unmarried, and monogamous or polyamorous....
.
Johnson teamed up with Stuart Taylor Jr.
Stuart Taylor Jr.
Stuart Taylor Jr. is a regular columnist for National Journal, a Contributing Editor at Newsweek and a Nonresident Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution...
to write a book about the case, Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustice of the Duke Lacrosse Case (ISBN 0-312-36912-3). It was published in September 2007.
Political views
Johnson supports the Democratic PartyDemocratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
. He supported Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign
Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2008
Barack Obama, then junior United States Senator from Illinois, announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States in Springfield, Illinois, on February 10, 2007. On August 27, 2008, he was declared nominee of the Democratic Party for the 2008 presidential election...
.
Books
- All the Way with LBJ: The 1964 Presidential Election, Cambridge University Press, 2009. ISBN 0521425956
- co-author (with Stuart Taylor), Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case, Thomas Dunne Books, 2007. ISBN 0312369123
- Congress and the Cold War, Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 0521528852
- co-editor (with Kent Germany), The Presidential Recordings: Lyndon B. Johnson, vol. 3, W.W. Norton, 2005. ISBN 0393060012
- co-editor (with David Shreve), The Presidential Recordings: Lyndon B. Johnson, vol. 2, W.W. Norton, 2005. ISBN 0393060012
- 20 January 1961: The American Dream, DTV Publishers, 1999. (click DTV and then Katalog)
- Ernest Gruening and the American Dissenting Tradition, Harvard University Press, 1998. ISBN 0674260600
- The Peace Progressives and American Foreign Relations, Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0674659171
- Editor, On Cultural Ground: Essays in International History, Imprint Publications, 1994. ISBN 1879176211
Journal articles and book chapters
- "Managing the Fall of a Friendly Dictator: The US and Anastasio Somoza's Nicaragua," in Ernest R. May and Philip Zelikow, eds., Dealing with Dictators: Dilemmas of US Diplomacy and Intelligence Analysis, 1945-1990, MIT Press, 2006.
- "Politics, Policy, and Presidential Power: Lyndon Johnson and the 1964 Farm Bill," in Mitch Lerner, ed., Looking Back at LBJ: White House Politics in a New Light, University Press of Kansas, 2005.
- "The Unexpected Consequences of Congressional Activism: The Clark and Tunney Amendments and U.S. Policy toward Angola," Diplomatic History 27 (2003): 215-243.
- "The Progressive Dissent: Ernest Gruening and Vietnam," in Randall Bennett Woods, ed, Vietnam and the American Political Tradition: The Politics of Dissent, Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 36-62.
- "Congressional Power," in Deconde, Burns, and Logevall, eds., Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, 2d ed., Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002, pp. 293-313.
- "The Politicization of Cultural Diplomacy," in Frank Ninkovich and Liping Bu, eds., The Cultural Turn, Imprint Publications, 2002, pp. 88-110.
- "The State Department," Oxford Companion to American History, Oxford University Press, 2001.
- "Congress and the Cold War," Journal of Cold War Studies 3 (2001): 77-101.
- "Constitutionalism at Home and Abroad: The United States Senate and the Alliance for Progress, 1961-1967," International History Review 21 (1999): 414-442.
- "Congress Confronts the Cold War: The Senate Government Operations Committee and American Foreign Relations, 1953-1969," Political Science Quarterly 113 (1998): 645-671.
- "Anti-Imperialism and the Good Neighbour Policy," Journal of Latin American Studies 29 (1997): 89-110.
- "The Origins of Dissent: Senate Liberals and Southeast Asia, 1959-1964," Pacific Historical Review 65 (1996): 249-275.
- "The ‘Lessons’ of Vietnam," Journal of American-East Asian Relations 4 (1995): 291-298.
- "Article XI in the Debate on the United States’ Rejection of the League of Nations," International History Review 15 (August 1993): 502-524.
- "Ernest Gruening and the Tonkin Gulf Resolution: Continuities in American Dissent," Journal of American-East Asian Relations 2 (Summer 1993): 111-135.
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
External links
- Official page at Brooklyn College
- K.C. Johnson Tenure Case
- Brooklyn College Johnson's curriculum vitae and bibliography.
- Durham-in-Wonderland Weblog about the Duke Lacrosse investigation.
- DNA & Double Standards Op-ed published by the New York PostNew York PostThe New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
- Brooklyn College Professor's Web Log Defends Duke Players
- Tenure Madness: How a shoo-in at Brooklyn College almost got the boot Article examining Johnson's tenure battle, published by the Chronicle for Higher Education.
- Presidential Tapes
- Duke's Rush to Judgement Interviewed by Jamie GlazovJamie GlazovJamie Glazov is the managing editor of Frontpage Magazine, the online publication founded by David Horowitz. He specializes in Soviet Studies, and U.S...
. - 2007 interview with Chicago Sports Review
- Alan Dershowitz's five best books about important legal cases