Join RCHS for our Annual Program.

RCHS Annual Celebration: Celebrating Our Past, Present & Future – Together

Wednesday, September 30, 2015
4:30-8:30 pm
Home of the Saint Paul Saints – CHS Field
Lowertown, Saint Paul
Free

Celebrate the past, present and future of the Civil Rights Movement in Minnesota, our local cultural institutions, and Saint Paul’s newest landmark, CHS Field.

Program Highlights

• Featured Speaker: Dr. Josie Johnson – 7 p.m. (Securian Club)
  We are honored and humbled to have Dr. Johnson, a noted leader, educator, and activist as our featured speaker. For highlights of Dr. Johnson’s stellar career, see below.

• Remarks by the Honorable County Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt and the Honorable Deputy Mayor Kristin Beckmann – 5 p.m. (Field)

• Youth Baseball Game by RBI Program– 5:10 p.m. (Field)
  Watch youth from the Twins’ RBI Program in an exhibition game. Inning breaks will feature local history, news from RCHS and participating organizations.

• The Selma 70 Experience– 6 p.m. (Concourse, behind home plate)
  Share in the experiences of Minnesotans who went to Selma, Alabama this year to march on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday. Panelists include Ms. Debbie Montgomery, Mr. Otis Zanders, Ms. Tisidra Jones, and Mr. Rashad Turner. Moderated by Ms. Mary K. Boyd.

• They Played for the Love of the Game– 6 p.m. (Concourse, near Broadway entrance)
  Presentation by historian and guest curator Frank White on the history of Black baseball in Minnesota.

• The Civil Rights Movement in Minnesota with Dr. Josie Johnson – 7 p.m.
  (Securian Club and broadcast to stadium)
  The Civil Rights movement and how it happened in Minnesota with one of its key leaders. Immediately following this program will be a Q&A with Dr. Johnson and the Selma Experience Panel.

• Non-profit showcase – 4:30-8:15 p.m. (Concourse)
  Visit and learn about many of Ramsey County’s cultural and civic organizations that are continuing to work towards a racially equitable world.Participating non-profits include: Saint Paul NAACP, Rondo Ave. Inc., The Saint Paul Foundation – I Am Saint Paul Campaign, RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities), Ujamaa Place, City of Saint Paul Department of Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity, Hallie Q. Brown Community Center, Planting People-Growing Justice Leadership Institute, Saint Paul City School, Saint Paul Police Department, and Walker West Music Academy

• Exhibits– 4:30-8:15 p.m. (Concourse)
  Historical exhibitions highlighting Selma 70 (exhibit preview, opens February 11, 2016) and Minnesota’s history of Black baseball, They Played for the Love of the Game.

• Refreshments
  Beverages and food available for purchase from the stadium’s vendors.

• Stadium tours. Guided tours of the CHS Stadium every 45 minutes (you must reserve your tour when you arrive, space is limited).

Celebrating Our Past, Present and Future – Together is free and open to all.

Reservations are requested but not required.

For reservations, please click here.

Questions? Call RCHS at 651-222-0701 or email us at info@rchs.com

Dr. Josie Johnson

Our keynote speaker, Dr. Josie Robinson Johnson is a renowned community leader, educator, and activist.

From Houston, Texas, Dr. Johnson is one of three children born to Judson and Josie Robinson. Her great grandfather Ralph was twelve years old when emancipation from slavery was granted.

Johnson earned a B.A. in Sociology at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, and an M.A. and Ed.D at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Johnson has played an active role in the civil rights movement since her teenage years, when she and her father gathered signatures on an anti-poll tax petition in Houston. In the 1960s, Johnson lobbied for passage of bills on issues of fair housing and employment, was a witness to the Civil Rights struggle, and became a community organizer for Project ENABLE, and acting director of the Minneapolis Urban League. She became a legislative liaison and community liaison with the mayor of Minneapolis.

In 1971, Johnson became the first African-American to serve as a regent on the University of Minnesota Board of Regents. Johnson was executive assistant/chief of staff to the lieutenant governor of Colorado from 1975 to 1978. In 1978 Johnson returned to Texas to supervise Judson Robinson’s campaign staff.

In 1980, she served as deputy campaign manager for the Jimmy Carter presidential campaign in Tennessee. Johnson returned to the University of Minnesota in the late 1980s as faculty in the College of Education and senior fellow at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. She later served as the associate vice-president for Academic Affairs from 1992 to 1996.

Semi-retired, she founded Josie Robinson Johnson and Associates in 1996. She has served as a Minneapolis Institute of Arts trustee, a Minnesota Medical Foundation trustee and sits on the advisory board of the Harriet Tubman Center. She is a recipient of the Committed to the Vision Award from the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights and the African American Community Endowment Fund Award. The University of Minnesota created The Josie R. Johnson Human Rights and Social Justice Award in 1997.

Johnson is the mother of three daughters, and three granddaughters.

Dr. Josie Johnson’s full biography.