Love's Reward - North Carolina A&T State University

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Johnsons Receive 2012 Human Rights Medal
A&T Hosts 20th NABJ
Short Course
Husband and wife activists Rev. Nelson
Johnson and Joyce Hobson Johnson were
honored at the university’s annual Sit-in
Anniversary Breakfast where the couple
received the North Carolina Agricultural
and Technical State University Human
Rights Medal for 2012.
The award recognizes individuals
who have endeavored to correct
social injustice and have significantly
contributed to the betterment of the
world. It is given to courageous men and
women whose actions reflect those that
were demonstrated on Feb. 1, 1960, by
four N.C. A&T freshmen—Ezell Blair Jr.
(now Jibreel Khazan), Franklin Eugene
McCain, Joseph Alfred McNeil, and
David Richmond Jr.—who sat down and
refused to leave the whites-only lunch
counter at the F.W. Woolworth Store in
downtown Greensboro. Their nonviolent
protest became part of a nationwide
movement that led to desegregation.
Chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr.
presented the medal to the Johnsons on
Feb. 1. A&T alumnus Darryl C. Towns,
commissioner and chief executive
officer of New York State Homes and
Community Renewal, was the keynote
speaker for the occasion.
The Johnsons are the second couple in
the eleven-year history of the award to
receive the honor. Together, they have
been partners in the pursuit to ensure
social and restorative justice for all
people for more than 40 years. They
have committed their lives to attaining
positive social change and economic
justice in the Greensboro community
and across the nation.
Rev. and Mrs. Johnson
Since 1991, the Johnsons have been an integral part of the founding and growth
of the Beloved Community Center, a nonprofit in Greensboro where he currently
serves as executive director and she is director of the BCC’s Jubilee Institute.
The BCC is modeled after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a “beloved
community”—envisioning and working toward social and economic relations that
affirm and realize the equality, dignity, worth and potential of every person.
In the 1990s, the BCC expanded its vision to include homeless hospitality,
housing advocacy and education reform. It worked across social, economic
and political divides to resolve the contentious Kmart labor struggle, and
also was involved with the effort for the release of Kwame Cannon, who was
serving two life sentences for unarmed burglary and whose circumstances
pointed to racial and class inequities within the criminal justice system.
In 2001, the BCC joined forces with the Greensboro Justice Fund and other
Greensboro residents to establish the pacesetting Truth and Community
Reconciliation Project. Modeled after the South African process and
other international efforts, this initiative is designed to encourage truth,
understanding and healing throughout Greensboro related to the tragic
murder of five labor and racial justice organizers by Ku Klux Klan and
American Nazi Party members on November 3, 1979. The couple led a
delegation to South Africa in 2007 to meet with members of the South African
Truth Commission and other human rights organizations.
The award recognizes individuals
who have endeavored to correct
social injustice and have
significantly contributed to the
betterment of the world.
Among numerous awards and honors, the Johnsons’ work at
Beloved Community Center has been recognized by the Ford
Foundation as one of the most significant grassroots organizations
in the country. For this they received the foundation’s Leadership
for a Changing World Award. They are also recipients of the Civic
Ventures Purpose Prize (Palo Alto, California); the Faith and
Politics Institute Beloved Community Award (Washington, D.C.);
and the North Carolina Justice Center’s Defenders of Justice Award
(Raleigh, N.C.).
As individuals, this pair is no less deserving of this honor.
Guided by his three-part emphasis on diversity, justice and
democracy, Rev. Johnson has been active in the movement for
social and economic justice since high school. In addition to
his role at Beloved Community Center, he is pastor of Faith
Community Church. He is frequently invited to share his
success stories in workshops and meetings, including those
sponsored by labor organizations.
Mrs. Johnson also has been an activist since high school, and
her involvement increased during her years as one of the earlier
black students at Duke University, where she supported campus
non-academic employees and the movement for relevant
education. She was instrumental in establishing the Jubilee
Institute, which serves as the administrative arm of the Beloved
Community Center of Greensboro and as a vehicle for building
the capacity of the organization and the larger movement.
Both individuals have earned a degree from North Carolina
A&T State University: he a bachelor’s degree and she a master’s.
She is also a retired A&T professor and former director of the
Transportation Institute. The Johnsons are the parents of two adult
daughters, and they have four grandchildren.
The Department of Journalism and Mass
Communication celebrated its 20th year of hosting
the annual National Association of Black Journalists
Multimedia Short Course seminar, March 21–24.
The annual seminar is designed to encourage
NABJ’s student members to pursue television
production as a career. Students participated in
workshops that provided hands-on experience and a
practical understanding of what it is like to work in a
broadcast newsroom.
Broadcast journalism students from across the
United States spent four days in workshops on
campus and had access to mentors who currently
work as news directors, producers, writers,
assignment editors and directors at some of the top
television stations in the country.
This year’s seminar included students from N.C.
A&T, Hampton, Norfolk State, Bethune-Cookman,
Southeastern Louisana, Ohio State, Howard,
Texas Southern, Tennessee State and N.C. Central
universities as well as Bennett and Peace colleges
and the University of Central Oklahoma. The
students worked with mentors from Winston Salem,
Durham, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., Sacramento,
New York and Houston.
This year’s workshops focused on writing for the
Internet, politics in the newsroom and a short course
on multimedia news media production. The Triad
chapter of NABJ hosted a panel discussion with
NABJ honorees and a gala celebrated the 20th
anniversary of the short course at A&T.
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