David Leinail Richmond (1941-1990)

Tekla Ali Johnson earned a Ph.D. in history with an emphasis in African American Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. At UNL she studied World System Theory with Andre Gunder Frank and, Africology and Kawaida Methodology at the Black Studies Department at UNO, with Dr. James Conyers. As a former traveling spouse, Ali Johnson taught Africana Studies on a number of campuses including: North Carolina A & T State University, Johnson C. Smith University and Salem College in North Carolina, Harris Stowe State and Clarkson University. She has served as Coordinator of the African & African American Studies Minor, Coordinator of the History Program, and co-founder of an emerging Concentration in Public History. From 2010-2014 She taught Africana Studies, Public History, and Women’s History at a women’s college. After a residency at the James Weldon Johnson African American Interdisciplinary Institute at Emory University, and an encounter there with the archives and person of Alice Walker, Ali Johnson acquired a degree in library science with an emphasis on Archives. Her first book ‘Free Radical’: Ernest Chambers, Black Power, and the Politics of Race (Texas Tech University Press, 2012) earned a national book award from the National Council of Black Studies, 2013, and a State Book award from Nebraska. Dr. Ali Johnson is a member of the faculty at the University of South Carolina where she teaches African American and Africana Studies. Her research focus is social justice. Ali Johnson is the Acting Secretary of the national Black Power Archives Collective. Her Current research includes a study of the mid-west chapter of the Black Panther Party, and forced relocation of African Americans through urban renewal. She is co-writing a manuscript entitled Forgotten Comrades.