The Lemuel A. Johnson Library, named in honor of former CAAS director and literary scholar Lemuel Johnson, has now become the Lemuel Johnson Center for Students, Community Engagement, and the Arts (LJC). Located in Room 5511 Haven Hall, the LJC is a welcoming, light-filled space overlooking the central campus Diag. It is open to all students who are interested in Africa, the African diaspora, social change, cultural exploration, and artistic expression.
The LJC is designed to be both a gathering place and a resource for students. The Center hosts creative programming in poetry, visual art, music, and film, and it supports community projects that connect campus life with local and global communities. Inside, students will find quiet nooks for reading, comfortable seating for study, and tables for group work. The Center also provides access to advising, computers, course and career resources, and peer support, along with fun, student-centered activities such as study breaks and community discussions.
In addition to these resources, the LJC offers a specialized collection of books and journals focused on Black poetic, visual, and architectural arts, available to students, scholars, and artists throughout campus. Whether you are looking for a quiet study spot, a place to collaborate with classmates, or opportunities to engage with art and culture, the LJC is here to support and inspire you.
Lemuel A. Johnson
Lemuel Johnson, former director of the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies was a much loved and respected professor in CAAS and the English Department. A scholar, critic, poet and teacher, he graduated from U-M with a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature (’68) and was appointed assistant professor of English in the same year. Rising rapidly through the ranks, he eventually became the director of the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies (CAAS), 1985–1991. Widely traveled, he was fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German and English, Krio (his national language), Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo. As a leading scholar of the African diaspora, he was especially interested in American, Latin American, Caribbean and African literature. Demanding, committed and charismatic, he was deeply concerned with preparing students to live in and to appreciate the complexity of the human experience on a global scale. As an instructor to students, he sought to “detoxify” the noxious consequences of racialist thought and imaginings. His books include Highlife for Caliban; Shakespeare in Africa; Carnival of the Old Coast; The Devil, the Gargoyle and the Buffoon: The Negro As Metaphor in Western Literature; Hand on the Navel.
