Karen J. Johnson
AUTHOR

Karen J. Johnson

Politics & Social Sciences
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I am a historian of race and religion in the twentieth century United States. My passion is to bring to light the knotty problems of religion and race in American history to help foster flourishing for all people. One in Christ: Chicago Catholics and the Quest for Interracial Justice was a joy to write. During my seminary MA program, I first began to see race. There, I started studying the intersection of religion and race in U.S. History, which was both a historical interest and a personal one because of how my own personal, social and church life had been shaped by these forces I did not see. I studied the subject further in my doctoral work, and it was a gift to be able to write the history of people who tried to bring their faith to bear in positive ways on the issues of race in American history. I also learned how complicated and difficult race is. While working on my doctorate, my husband and I lived in Chicago's Austin neighborhood. There (as a white person who could no longer easily ignore race), I learned about race and religion from my neighbors there, by being white in a mostly-black neighborhood, and from the people at Rock of Our Salvation Evangelical Free Church, the interracial church where we were members. I have published articles in Religion and American Culture, American Catholic Studies and an essay in Christians and the Color Line (Oxford, 2014). I have forthcoming articles in Christian Scholars' Review and Fides et Historia on using the Hebrew prophetic tradition of lament as a response to the history of race in America. I am currently editing a book called Understanding and Teaching Religion in U.S. History, with Jonathan Yeager, which will be a resource for high school and college history teachers. My next two book projects are a general history of religion and race in U.S. history for non-academics, and a history of race, religion and place in Chicago and its suburbs in the post-civil rights era. I teach history courses on race and ethnicity in the United States, the civil rights movement, American cities and suburbs, general U.S. history, and a first year seminar class on place and the good life. I also train future history teachers. I earned my Ph.D. in history from the University of Illinois at Chicago, my M.A. in Christian thought from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and my B.A. in history from Carleton College.
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