Johnson Chapel

Johnson Chapel
Johnson Chapel

Johnson Chapel is located on the Amherst College campus in the Quadrangle. It is  named after Adam Johnson of Pelham who contributed $4000 to fund its construction. The chapel was dedicated to him on February 28, 1827. The chapel has hosted a number of notabable speakers, as welll as a group of esteemed and distingued African American figures. 

 

 

 

MLK
MLK

About two years before Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial made a visit to Amherst College and the sorrounding area. While visiting the Pioneer Valley, Martin Luther King Jr. made his way to Smith College and Williams College the day before he made his stop in Amherst. Upon his arrival he was greeted by Amherst College students and gave a speech at the Johnson Chapel on April 17, 1961. Although there is not much informtion on his visit to Amherst College, Martin Luther King Jr. returned to the Pioneer Valley on October 23, 1863 to preach a sermon titled "The Three Demisions of a Complete Life" at the Mount Holyoke Amphitheter.

The audio recording of the sermon is available at Mount Holyoke College. After the sermon, King spoke with the press, students, and members of the communitty in Mount Holyoke's Elliott House. 

        Victoria DeLee, a civil rights worker who fought for school integration and the education of black voters spoke here in May of 1972. She is known as a local activism and communitty organizing and a fierce activist in her home state of North Carolina, describing her life as "unbought, unbossed, and unsold".

Victoria DeLee 1960's Civil Rights Activist
Victoria DeLee 1960's Civil Rights Activist

Her amazing work includes providing literacy and child care for blacks and native americans, running for the House of Representatives a year before Shirley Chisholm ran for presidency, and organized the United Citizens Party as a response to South carolinas ban on black candidates. She received an honorary degree from Amherst College and passed away in South Carolina on June 14, 2010. 

 

Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, also spoke here on April 6, 1978. Marshall was a lawyer known for his success rate arguing before the Supreme Court and his win in Brown vs. The Board of Education. His first successful court case represented Donald Gaines, an Amherst College graduate with exceptional credentials. By representing Gaines he was able to eradicate racism and segregation in the University of Maryland's Law School. He was appointed Associate Justice by President Linden B. Johnson 1965 winning 14 of 19 cases on behalf of the government.  

Charles Houston at Amherst College
Charles Houston at Amherst College

 For Marshall, this visit would have been an opportunity to celebrate his mentor Charles H. Houston, a lawyer and activist committed to fighting against segragation, and alumni of Amherst College with his own ties to Johnson Chapel. Douglas O. Linder, in the article "Before Brown: Charles H. Houston and the Gaines Case" gives a brief summary of Houston's time at Amherst College:

"Charles devoted himself to his studies at Amherst.  As the only black student in the class of 1915, he had “very few friends in town and rarely paid a social visit.”  He described himself as “too shy or too proud” to visit his classmates in the all-white fraternity houses.  The alienation he felt on account of racism seemed to spur his academic achievement and growing self-reliance.  In a letter to his father he wrote, “Let us…resolve to depend upon ourselves exclusively as much as possible, in all walks of life.”  He attributed his excellent grades—almost entirely A’s and B’s in an era long before grade inflation—to hard work rather than innate ability.  “Genius,” he told his father, “is not half so much inspiration as it is the culmination of endless, painful and infinitely applied careful application.” In June 1915, Charles climbed the tower of Johnson Chapel, in accordance with senior tradition, to carve “CHH ‘15” alongside the initials of other Amherst graduates."

 

Read more about Charles H. Houston at http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/trialheroes/charleshoustonessayF.html

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Dr. Amilcar Shabazz
Dr. Amilcar Shabazz

Dedicated to

Dr. Amilcar Shabazz, chair of W.E.B. DuBois Department of Afro-American Studies, and instructor of the class "Heritage Of The Oppressed." Thank you for reminding us the importance of learning the stories of the "other." 

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