Those Who Broke the Color Barrier
Life work and Legacy of
Dr. Johnny L Greene (1944-2017)
Dr. Johnny Lee Greene retired from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005 after thirty years of teaching there. Before joining the faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill, Dr. Greene taught literature and American Studies at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Dr. Greene’s research, publishing and teaching specialties were African American literature and Southern literature and culture, and American literature.
Johnny L. Greene was born in Rutherford County, North Carolina, in 1944 to the late Raymond Sr. and Buleaner, Alexander Greene. He attended Dunbar Elementary and graduated from Carver High School in 1963. He received his B.A. (1967), M.A. (1972, and Ph.D. (1974) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Before receiving his graduate degrees, Greene taught special-needs students in Annapolis, Maryland. and high school English in the American Virgin Island. He did graduate study at Harvard University in 1968, was a post-doctoral Ford Foundation Fellow in American Studies at Yale University (1981-82), and a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavior Sciences Stanford, CA (1985-86).
While on the faculty UNC-Chapel Hill, Greene won several teaching awards, including the Tanner Award and held an endowed Bowman and Gordon Gray term chair as an associate professor. Three years before his retirement, Greene was designed University Professor of Distinguished Teaching, an endowed term chair. Greene has published several scholarly articles in professional journals, has produced two plays and one film, has presented several papers at scholarly conference in the United States and aboard, and is the author of three scholarly books; Blacks in Eden, The Diasporan Self and Time’s Unfading Garden,: Anne Spencer’s Life and Poetry.
In 2012, Dr. Greene and many others from the county help established the African American Heritage Museum of Rutherford County located on 421 Hardin Road, Forest City, North Carolina. Currently the Museum houses three permanent exhibits, each of which uses photographs, narrative, visuals documents, artifacts, and other historical material in its display: School Days, Home Lives, and Family Matters. The mission of the Museum brought him his greatest accomplishment and satisfaction.
His classmate Eleanor Whitworth, thought of Johnny as being gentle, loving caring kind, mentally and physically strong, very high skilled and mutli-talented man. She also stated Dr. J. Greene, was self- focused – he knew what he wanted at an incredibly young age. He read every book in the Dunbar Elementary Library.
He was a no- nonsense individual, academician,
creative and tireless and that Dr. J. Greene wrote part of the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) validation to entry in graduate school.
Rutherford County citizens are very thankful and appreciates the fact that Dr. Greene and other members of the county researched and created a museum for the African American History of Rutherford County.
Other museum helpers and researchers are:
Teresa Proctor
La Vella Meacham
Eleanor Whitworth
Alfred Lee Lynch
William Hamilton
Threatha Bennings
Jimmy Littlejohn
The Citizens of Rutherford County and surrounding areas.
Monetary donations to help the continual work, development and operation of the Museum are greatly appreciated. And tax deductible.
Ways to make donations.
African American Heritage Museum
Mail to: P O Box 364, Forest City, NC 28043
Copyright © 2020 African American Heritage Museum- All Rights Reserved.
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