When Dr. Irvin Reid was preparing his speech for inauguration as president of Wayne State University, he recalls his new close adviser, Arthur Johnson, giving him a seasoned perspective on the school and its role in Detroit.
“He said the urban agenda is our destiny” Reid recalled, saying that “inspirational” view for his speech served him well throughout his 10-year presidency. “He imbued me with that idea.”
Reid, who retired in 2008, was among a host of friends and colleagues who credit Arthur Johnson with helping them see their community – Motor City – in broader, positive ways. Indeed, Johnson devoted his life to helping others see the possibilities of human relations and what is now called “civility.”
Johnson, a Georgia native who came to Detroit in 1950 after his 1948 graduation from Morehouse College, had that effect on everyone, says Reid and others who reflected Wednesday on the stellar career of Johnson. He died at his home on Tuesday night after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 85.
Johnson was part of a trio of Black leaders — Damon Keith and the late Coleman Young being the others — to emerge in Detroit between 1950 and 1975 and be credited with being relentless boosters of the Motor City and of civil rights for all of its citizens. They are credited with being among the deep thinkers who helped navigate a meaningful role beyond that of worker for Black Detroiters, nurturing, grooming and supporting a plethora of civic, religious, labor, academic and political leaders of all races along the way.
“Arthur Johnson was an important, extraordinary person in the life of the city over the past 60 years,” says Eugene Driker, Detroit native, veteran corporate lawyer and member of the Wayne State board of governors for nearly a decade. “He could speak from strength without ever having to resort to stridency,” says Driker. “He could command the iron fist with a velvet glove.” Driker says Johnson never had to raise his voice, pound a table with his fist or threaten. “He used his persuasive skills to get people to act.”
Indeed, Johnson, a classmate of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is remembered as being quietly effective in most every endeavor he pursued.
