Edward A. Johnson
Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Edward A. Johnson 1860 1944. Politician, businessman, philanthropist, author, and educator. First black to publish a N.C. textbook. Home was here.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
Edward A. Johnson was a many-sided figure in turn-of-the-century Black America, working as a politician, businessman, philanthropist, author, and educator. He became the first Black author to publish a schoolbook in North Carolina, writing Black history into the classroom. His home stood on this site.
Why it matters
By putting Black history into a published textbook, he insisted that African American achievement belonged in the nation's schools and its story.
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