Oral history interview with Guion Griffis Johnson, May 28, 1974

Guion Griffis Johnson was a preeminent sociologist, educated at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the 1920s. In this interview (the third in a four-part series), Johnson focuses primarily on her education, her work with the Institute for Research in Social Sciences (IRSS) during the 1920s and 1930s, her participation in the Carnegie-Myrdal Study of the Negro in America, and the challenges of being a woman academic during that era. Johnson begins with a brief discussion of her formative years in Greenville, Texas. Focusing on how her father had provided a model of racial tolerance and that she grew up believing women should have the same opportunities as men. In 1924, Johnson began her doctoral degree, alongside her husband, Guy B. Johnson, at UNC. Both worked for the newly formed IRSS, spearheaded by Howard Odum, and aligned themselves with those on campus who shared their progressive views on race relations. In describing her work with the IRSS, Johnson focuses on some of the opposition the Institute faced from various sectors of the academic community. During the 1930s, Johnson and her husband became well-versed in the history of race relations in the South a