As our campus celebrates Black History Month, I began to wonder who were the first black students to graduate from Vanderbilt. I went on a quest to discover the identity and story surrounding these students and to see what they have done since their first days here at Vandy.

It turns out I had to look no further than the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center, which is named in honor of Bishop Joseph Johnson, who was in fact the first black student to graduate from Vanderbilt University.

Johnson, who once worked at Vanderbilt as a member of the grounds crew, was a man of many firsts. He served as the first black student to be admitted to the university, the first black student to earn a doctorate here and the first black individual to join the Vanderbilt Board of Trust.

The path that brought him to that point, however, was less than smooth.

Bryan Bennington Bliss, who graduated from the Divinity School with a Master of Theological Studies in 2004, chronicled the life of Johnson in a piece titled "The Bishop Who 'Turned Out' A Legacy."

According to Bliss, Johnson first submitted an application to the Graduate School in December 1951. Despite his impressive resume, he was not accepted until May 1953. A letter addressed to Dean John Keith Benton from Johnson reveals that upon his first request Johnson was denied admittance.

In 1953 Johnson was finally admitted under a policy that allowed blacks to only be accepted to Vanderbilt programs that were unique to the Nashville area, such as the Divinity School and the Vanderbilt University Law School.

However, gaining admittance was not the only obstacle Johnson had to overcome. Johnson attended Vanderbilt at a time when the full effect of the civil rights movement had not yet been realized. His acceptance was dependant on the fact that he not be allowed access to dorms, dining facilities and other amenities that white students had access to.

"There were restrictions to his being admitted, mostly social in nature," said Johnson's son, Joseph Johnson III, in Bliss' book. "But he found all the conditions agreeable - no dorm, no dining - but he had a family, so that did not really matter to him."

After only a year of enrollment in the Divinity School, Johnson received the Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1954. He went on to receive a doctorate in New Testament theology from the Divinity School in 1958.

After leaving Vanderbilt, Johnson had a notable career in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and in the arena of teaching.
Johnson passed away due to a sudden illness in 1979, but his legacy will never be forgotten. He opened the doors for the many black students that would come after him.

Yet, Johnson was not the only African American to pave new paths at Vanderbilt. Dr. Tommy Morton-Young was the first black student to graduate from Peabody College, which at that time was not yet a part of Vanderbilt. Morton-Young completed her studies in 1955, the year after the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court hearing was overturned by Brown v. Board of Education.

"That was really before the integration movement," Morton-Young said. "There were so few African Americans entering this school, they were perceived as tokens. At that time, I was the only African American student at Peabody." Morton-Young went on to say that while she did not live on campus, she had a very productive year and eventually graduated with a master's degree.

She also explained that while the college was completely desegregated, she did not experience many confrontations from the other students.

"There were some professors who challenged me, but I am of the personality that meets intellectual confrontation with pleasure," Morton-Young said. "I was never de-stabilized."

Morton-Young also explained that the true confrontations began about nine years later, but she had already left the campus to pursue a doctorate at Duke University.

Until recently, Morton-Young taught at the University of North Carolina. When she retired, she returned to Nashville and now devotes her time to research and writing. This Saturday, she will celebrate her 10th published book's release at the Bordeaux Library.

Darcy Newell contributed reporting to this article.