On the Campus Arch Ceremony for James C. Johnson: An Ex-Slave, a Friend to Students

Tori Repp/Fotobuddy Photography

Lecturer in dance Dyane Harvey-Salaam holds a candle in front of a portrait of James C. Johnson in an East Pyne arch during an ancestral-remembrance ceremony Oct. 22. The arch facing Firestone Library has been named in honor of Johnson, a fugitive slave who worked on campus and was a friend to many students for six decades, first as a janitor and then selling fruits and candies from a wheelbarrow. Students in Harvey-Salaam’s course on dance and Africanist practices performed in a ceremony led by Chief Ayanda Clarke, a New York-based Ifa spiritual leader. He called on ancestors “who can galvanize community to restore honor where honor was lost” and said, “We’re standing on the shoulders of James Johnson.”