DETROIT – Former Wayne State University administrator and civil rights and civic activist Arthur Johnson has died. He was 85.
Johnson had Parkinson's disease and died Tuesday after an extended illness.
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Johnson was born in Americus, Ga., and was a friend of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., graduating with him from Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1948.
Johnson later advised then-Detroit Mayor Coleman Young. Johnson held administrative jobs at Wayne State for 23 years, retiring in 1995 as senior vice president.
Ex-Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer says "there was nothing too small or too big" for Johnson to take on if he thought it was in the interest of the city.
Wayne State University President Emeritus Irvin Reid was a good friend of Johnson and said the activist had a lifelong fight for racial justice.
"But he didn't do it pounding the desk, yelling or making grandiose movements with his arms. He sat quietly and spoke to you. Therefore, there was this prose that was almost poetic," Reid said.
Johnson's memoir "Race and Remembrance" was published in 2008.