James R. Johnson & His Family

James Richard (J. R.) Johnson (1851-1926), born enslaved in Virginia, was an outspoken civil rights advocate in the Republican party, a long-time barber and Mason, and an early member of the Second (9th Street) Baptist Church. Louisa Maria Cross (1853-1944) was also born enslaved in Virginia. She reportedly came to Lawrence “soon after Quantrill’s raid” in 1863. How and when she met Mr. Johnson is not known exactly but they married on November 7, 1872 at her parents’ home in Olathe.¹

Mason and Barber

Johnson may have already been a Mason by 1875 when he went to Leavenworth to dedicate a new Black Masonic chapter, for by 1876, his name appeared as a member of the Western Star Lodge, among other subsequent activities. At some point, he was also elected this lodge’s Grand Master.² He also served as Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Good Samaritans and Daughters of Samaria.³ As a member of the Kansas Royal Arch Masons, Onward Chapter, No. 2, he was elected Most Excellent High Priest in 1877 (followed by John M. Mitchell) and Captain of the Host in 1878.⁴

Like many others, Johnson experienced a long career as a barber, most often with various partners who moved from shop to shop frequently. His first shops, inside or near the Eldridge House downtown, likely drew many white travelers and resident customers.⁵ Touted as “a prince among barbers and a grand master of the tonsorial art,” “Jimmy” surrounded himself with the best artists, such as Allen Williams, W. Harry Pembleton, Luke Berry, and James Gross, as well as a German barber from KC.⁶ For unknown reasons, his partnership with John M. Mitchell at the Centennial Barber Shop lasted only a short while.⁷ As evidence of his growing prosperity, Johnson purchased the O.K. Barber Shop under the Wells Fargo Express Office and expanded from two to three chairs with new furniture by 1881.⁸ Having learned the trade with Thomas M. Moore, he became the foreman of Moore’s barber shop back in the Eldridge House, formerly owned by Mark Anthony.⁹

During the mid-1880s, other shop shuffles found him working with William Washington, Harry Pembleton, and Mark Anthony.¹⁰ He also operated a shop inside Topeka’s Windsor Hotel for a year.¹¹ From the 1890s through the early 1900s, he partnered with Albert Gregg, James Smith, and Perry Polk, as well as R. E. Jones and H. S. Hubbard, at various addresses on Massachusetts street downtown.¹²

In 1901, Johnson, Jones, Hubbard, and James H. Strode joined several white barbers in announcing they would close their shops at 8 p.m., except Saturday nights and holidays at 1 p.m., with the following prices: Haircut, shampoo, and honing razors, 25¢.; seafoam, 15¢.; shave and beard trim, 10¢.¹³ Beginning in 1912, Johnson’s son Ira became his final partner at their 3-chair Royal Barber Shop at 14 West Warren [9th] Street through 1925.¹⁴ Upon the death of Booker T. Washington in 1915, Black barbers and other Black business owners closed for one hour during Washington’s funeral.¹⁵

Emancipation Days and the Baptist Church

Black citizens celebrated emancipation on different days. For Lincoln’s initial Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, Johnson served as Assistant Marshal in 1875.¹⁶ Three years later, he announced the following “To the Public” for a different celebration that freed 750,000 enslaved people under British control in 1843:

The emancipation of the West India Islands will be celebrated at the fairgrounds on Thursday, August 1st, 1878, under the auspices of the Second Baptist church, to which all are invited irrespectively. We would say let us remain in Lawrence and celebrate that day and spend our money to build up own institutions in this city. Come to our rescue, and while joining us in commemorating the greatest event of the age, namely the abolition of slavery, you can at the same time contribute something towards completing our church edifice, which will be an honor to the colored people and an ornament to the city alike. See program and come out with us.

James R. Johnson

[Chairman] For the Committee

For the program, people marched in an orderly procession down Massachusetts street, led by President Lemuel King, Rev. Dudley Lee of the church, and orators (e.g., Charles H. Langston and white officials), then the German Band, Sabbath Schools, and other societies, followed by citizens on foot, horseback, and in carriages and wagons. One year later, the new church, built on the corner of Ohio and 9th streets, opened its services.¹⁷

Thirty years later, Johnson led devotional prayers at a large chautauqua held at the renamed Warren (9th) Street Baptist Church.¹⁸ As one of the church’s oldest members and chairman of its board of trustees, he welcomed delegates to a Kansas State Baptist convention by turning over the keys to the state president in 1915.¹⁹

Republican Politics and Civil Rights

Johnson’s Christian faith mirrored his initial faith in the Republican Party, even when its prejudicial conduct did not merit support from Black voters, as he argued with Doc McWilliams and Parris Barker.²⁰ Known as a man “who always makes a good speech,” he supported Republican tickets with good arguments.²¹ His participation in local and state politics as a delegate, along with other offices and committees, earned him much respect over the years, especially throughout the 1880s.²²

In 1880, a “red hot” convention of Black men placed him in the thick of heated, drawn out motions that lasted until 4 a.m. When James Gross nominated him to chair the meeting, a rising vote defeated him (by a vote of 42 to 12), as did his nomination for secretary. John L. Waller, a lawyer, controlled the meeting as chairman and finally turned toward nominating nine delegates for a State convention. Johnson was nominated along with four other barbering colleagues (i.e., Gross, John M. Mitchell, James Smith, and Mark Anthony) and 21 others.²³ Months later, when a new independent Garfield Club of Black men was organized, Johnson became an elected secretary, served on an executive committee, and spoke at a rally in Eudora with McWilliams, Gross, and Smith.²⁴

In the fall of 1883, three intertwined civil rights issues moved Johnson to take actions. On October 15, equal rights for seven million Black citizens across the nation eroded when the Republican-leaning US Supreme Court declared the 1875 Civil Rights Act unconstitutional, allowing restaurants, theatres, and hotels to discriminate against Black people. As the Republican Journal noted, this decision would not affect Kansas because its legislature had already passed a civil rights law in 1873 with much the same language.²⁵

Even so, a huge crowd of indignant Black residents met at the courthouse on October 22 to condemn the Supreme Court’s 8-1 decision. Citizens agreed to send a telegraph to Justice Harlan thanking him for his lone dissent. A committee of five men, including Johnson, wrote additional resolutions that also urged men to use their voting rights in all future elections to condemn anyone who degrades and insults the race.²⁶ Three days later, Johnson wrote the following letter to the Lawrence Herald (a Democratic paper):

Hon. J. C. Watts is a [“People’s”/Democratic] candidate asking for the support of the voters of Douglas county for the highest and most important office [of county sheriff] which the people of the county can bestow on any citizen. I believe he was a member of the Kansas legislature when the law known as the Civil Rights Bill was passed. I, in common with many other colored citizens, would like to know what position he took in relation to that bill. An early reply with the information sought would greatly oblige.

Yours truly,

James R. Johnson²⁷

The Herald did not reply to his query other than indicating its firm support of Watts on the so-called “People’s” ticket.²⁸

However, the Herald did feel compelled to call out Joel White, the Republican candidate for county clerk, because he had defied the civil rights law in 1875 by ordering two highly educated and respectable Black ladies out of his restaurant. One of them, Judith Keith, “of conspicuous ability,” had taught at Vermont street school for three years before her untimely death from TB in 1877.²⁹

At another crowded meeting held at Frazer’s hall on October 29, Louis Bowers, a Black constable, dismissed slanderous news reports about Joel White. After he and others explained their reasons for standing by the Republican Party, John Waller read a letter, dated October 22 and signed by I. [Ishmael] Keith as follows:

Whereas, it has been reported to me that stories have been put in circulation that Mr. Joel White, republican candidate for county clerk, drove a member of my family out of his restaurant because of her color, I deem it but justice to Mr. White to say that he has always treated me and my family, so far as I know, with all the courtesy due from a gentleman. When Mr. White was an employee of Mr. Brown in the restaurant, as I was informed, my daughter [Judith] and another colored lady were told that Mr. Brown’s orders were against colored people being entertained, but Mr. White was always gentlemanly. I regard him as a friend to the colored men, and I shall support the entire Republican ticket, and especially Mr. White.

I. Keith³⁰

The Journal reporter, who had been elected secretary for this meeting, published this response to the letter the next day: “The howl about Joel White violating the civil rights bill has [ended]. It was fully explained to the satisfaction of all at the Republican meeting Monday night that Mr. White, being but an employee and acting under his employer’s orders, could not do otherwise at the time. The letter…satisfied everyone.”³¹

However, on that same day, the Herald reported alternative “facts” about Joel White (e.g., his temper and his “Virginia education”). The paper asserted that Keith’s letter “was not written by Mr. Keith,” an honest man who “reluctantly signed” it, but that this letter was “an evasion to mislead the colored voters.”³² In truth, Mr. White was the owner, not an employee of this restaurant for over two years (1873-76).³³

Having barbered near White’s restaurant, Johnson verified these truths by writing to the Herald editor again, suggesting that Warren B. Brown may have been one of his white clients:

In an article in [Tuesday] morning’s Journal signed I. Keith, it is said that if his daughter was insulted in Mr. White’s place of business he did not know it; that his understanding was that Mr. Brown, a brother-in-law of A[lbert] Hadley, was running the establishment and that Mr. White was acting in a subordinate capacity. All of which is untrue, and as I was personally acquainted with Brown, and think that I knew his manly principle. I will not submit in his absence to have him disgraced by any set of men; and if Mr. Keith will refresh his memory, he will recall the fact as told to him by Judith, that Mrs. Geo. J. Barker, with true womanly courage rebuked Mr. White then and there for the insult offered those ladies, both of whom are now dead. In conclusion Mr. Editor, I want to say that I do not care so much about the political aspect as I do for the manhood and friendship of Mr. Brown. Brown was not running that restaurant, [and] is in nowise responsible for that act; but Mr. Joel White, and he alone must answer to the charge in this case. And now Mr. Editor, if this is not satisfactory to those gentlemen, I will enlighten them further by rehashing the acts in the campaign of 1873.

James R. Johnson³⁴

(During the 1873 campaign, county Republicans nominated White for county clerk only because Paul R. Brooks declined the nomination; White lost this election by 660 votes.³⁵)

Two days later, citizens heard speeches about the People’s candidates at an overflowing meeting. As the last speaker, Johnson “made some telling points. He gave his reasons why the People’s ticket ought to be elected and predicted that Jack Watts and Joseph E. Riggs would receive such a majority in Lawrence as would convince the [Republican] advocates of Carmean and White that the colored as well as the white voters, are intelligent, and know how to vote without being instructed by the census stuffers.”³⁶ Due in part to Black men who stood fast with the Republican party, Watts and Riggs lost the election and White won county clerk, a four-year term, by 368 votes.³⁷

Despite his stated position in 1883, Johnson supported white Republican candidates and served as vice-president of the Black Republican Blaine and Logan Club.³⁸ Then, in fall 1885, Black men met at the courthouse to debate party affiliations. Like others, Johnson stated his position:

We must not be led as sheep to vote [on] any ticket. The colored men should not be understood as voting only one ticket and at all times. The drawback to the colored man is based on one fact, viz: a majority of all the people in this country when they are shown a colored man, say, ‘there is a Republican.’ We are allowed to differ on everything else but supposed to have but one idea about politics. So long as we vote as sheep, the race will not advance one step. We have been chained to the wheels of a domineering chariot. We must be governed by principles and measures, not prejudices nor unworthy leadership. When the Republican party are making up their ticket or platform, do they consult you? No! After twenty years of Republican rule, a colored man is not allowed to belong to the Kansas State militia. We are not free men if we are dictated to what ticket we shall vote. Go into the canvas on its merits, and if any man says he controls your vote, stigmatize it as a lie at the polls.

As a result, men unanimously adopted two resolutions: that they were “not duty bound to support the Republican party” and that their city and county interests could be best served “by dividing up [their votes] among the several political parties at the coming election.”³⁹

Although Johnson and other men urged the Kansas legislature to remove the word “white” from the Kansas constitution in 1886, voters did not approve a constitutional amendment until 1888—only in regard to State militias, despite opposition from Lawrence Democrats.⁴⁰ After a new Fred Douglas Club was organized in 1888, Johnson was elected vice-president and became a delegate for state conventions of league clubs in Topeka one year later.⁴¹ His ongoing interests in elections surfaced again as a speaker in 1908 when 150 Black citizens gathered at Central Park. Here, Robert B. McWilliams, a leading lawyer and son of his Fred Douglas Club colleague, Doc McWilliams, explained the new primary law in the coming election.⁴²

Family

The Johnson family resided at various addresses in East Lawrence, before settling at 1029 Indiana (James and Salina Gross’ former home) by 1900.⁴³ While keeping house, Mrs. Louisa M. Johnson gave birth to six (or seven) children, most of whom died all too young.⁴⁴

The couple’s eldest daughter Eva F. Johnson, born in 1877, became known for her literary recitations, such as one for a Kansas history contest, and joined the Lawrence Progressive (literary) Club with Carrie Langston (Charles and Mary’s daughter).⁴⁵ After both women were elected officers of the Interstate Literary Society in 1897, Miss Johnson’s recital of Lady Macbeth was considered a “leading event” at the society’s eighth annual meeting in 1898.⁴⁶ On August 30, 1899, Miss Johnson married George W. Ellis, a prominent orator and lawyer who had graduated from KU’s Law school in 1893. This elaborate wedding, held at the Johnson home, was considered “one of the grandest events of the season” for “the high standing” of both the groom and bride. Over 200 prominent citizens gathered indoors and out, while many more spectators thronged in the street to witness this impressive ceremony.⁴⁷ Ten months later, Eva Ellis died tragically at age 23 from TB at her parents’ home, while her husband was in Washington, DC attending Howard University. After her funeral at the Baptist church, her parents thanked their many Black and white friends who offered aid and sympathy.⁴⁸ (She lies buried at Oak Hill Cemetery, Section 9, E28).

Jim Jr., named James R. after his father, was born on November 26, 1874.⁴⁹ At age 16, he aided his family’s income by collecting slop for pigs in a two-wheel cart around town.⁵⁰ Unfortunately, he took to drinking and selling intoxicating liquor in violation of the state’s prohibition law.⁵¹ His employment as a porter and steward at the Elks’ Lodge improved his income; he married Minnie A. Cloud on July 12, 1905.⁵² He then took a job working for a railroad dining car and hotel company in St. Paul, Minnesota. Upon his death two years later at age 33 from pneumonia, his body was brought back for burial at Oak Hill (Section 11, grave E24).⁵³ Sadly, his little sister, named Ruth Delight (1895-1907), died ten months later from heart disease at age 12, while attending Central School.⁵⁴ (She rests at peace near her big brother in Section 11, grave E22).

Sadly, these early deaths led Mrs. Johnson, a highly respected mother, to start hallucinating when a young KU medical student roomed with the family in 1914: “She declared that the boy brought dead languages to the house with him from school and that the talking bothered her. She was so worried over the [Hebrew talk] that she dismissed the roomer. However, the Hebrew voices still continued, and the unfortunate woman complained that she could not drive them away from her house.” Given that her deeply felt grief over her children’s deaths appeared to weaken her mind, she was judged “insane” and sent to the state hospital in Topeka for an unknown period of time.⁵⁵

In addition to his wife’s debility, Mr. Johnson likely worried over his remaining son Ira Noble Johnson (born in 1887). While working at his father’s barber shop, Ira’s number came up for the WWI draft registration, but it appears he did not serve.⁵⁶ Like his late brother, he too faced court charges for possessing liquor and driving while drunk.⁵⁷ On top of all this, James Johnson needed to have one leg amputated in order to save his life from gangrene in 1919.⁵⁸

After living a full life with joyful highs and tragic lows, James R. Johnson passed away at age 75 in 1926 from influenza—with no acknowledgment of his hard-fought political activism for civil rights. At this time, Louisa purchased two single graves (for $14) at the northwest corner of Section 9 at Oak Hill Cemetery. Eighteen years later at age 91, she joined her husband in their final resting places with stone markers (P1-2). Both their funerals were conducted by Rev. George N. Jackson of the Ninth Street Baptist Church. In 1951, the body of their son Ira, a painter and wallpaper hanger, was discovered in the family home at 1029 Indiana, apparently dead from a heart attack at age 64.⁵⁹ (His burial site is unknown.)