Lyman T. Johnson Postdoctoral Fellows

2004 Recipients:

Gregory S. Parks (Psychology) is interested in the ways in which psychological theory and research help us better understand the relationship between race and law. More specifically, he is interested in how psychology can be used to understand courtroom participants (i.e., judges, lawyers, juries, and witnesses). His current and primary work is an edited book on psychology race, and law.

2003 Recipients:

Michael E. Crutcher Jr. (Geography) is interested in the historic development and maintenance of cultural landscapes under changing social, economic and political conditions. Specific issues include the privatization of public space, gentrification and heritage tourism. His current research, under advisor Richard Schein, looks at these issues in the Tremé, a culturally and historically rich, African-American neighborhood in downtown New Orleans.

William C. Hoston Jr. (Physics & Astronomy) works in condensed matter physics, a subject which involves phenomena that emerge when large numbers of systems interact, in particular high-temperature superconductors. Superconductors conduct electrical current without dissipating energy. Until the mid 1980s, all superconducting materials fit within a framework that had been established by the 1960s. However, this framework fails to explain the high-temperature superconductors and research on finding a new way to understand them continues. I pursue this work in conjunction with collaborators at UK (Herb Fertig and Ganpathy Murthy in Physics), Boston University and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland.

Easton Reid (Cardiovascular Physiology) investigates the role of endogenous opiates and other compounds in myocardial protection. From cardiac myocyte to functional myocardium, these compounds have shown benefit by decreasing ischemia-reperfusion injury, reducing infarct size and improving surgical cardioplegia. The mechanisms underlying such cardioprotection are unknown. During his fellowship, the effects of modulating G-protein coupled receptors and intracellular cascades will be determined. As a result, clinical interventions can be developed to stimulate protective or block detrimental signaling pathways in compromised cardiac conditions.

The Spirit and Legacy of Lyman T. Johnson

By filing a federal lawsuit against the University of Kentucky in 1948, Lyman T. Johnson opened a door that thousands of African-American students have walked through. The lawsuit challenged the state's Day Law, the law that prohibited blacks and whites from attending the same schools. In 1998, UK celebrates the 50th anniversary of Johnson's successful challenge.

Johnson had already earned a bachelor's degree in Greek from Virginia Union University and a master's degree from the University of Michigan when he entered UK in 1949 as a 43-year-old graduate student. Although he left UK before earning a degree, the university presented him in 1979 with an honorary doctor of letters degree.

Johnson taught history, economics and math for 33 years at Louisville's Central High School. The civil rights pioneer was a member of the Jefferson County Board of Education from 1978 to 1982.

Johnson--a devout believer that integration was the only path to equity between the races--is celebrated as one Kentucky's greatest fighters for integration. He died at age 91 in 1997. Johnson's determination to break the color barrier has garnered praise from educators everywhere. Beverly Watts, executive director of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, said, "He really lived a legacy, and I think we truly have a shining example to follow." At Johnson's death, UK President Charles T. Wethington Jr. praised his courage: "His leadership and courage set the example which has been so successfully carried by thousands of African Americans at the University of Kentucky over the past five decades."