BAPTIST PASTOR NEW HEAD OF HOWARD U.

Washington, D. C.—Dr. Mordecai W. Johnson, of Charleston, W. Va., a
Baptist pastor, is the newly elected president of Howard University.

By a vote of 12 to 2 he was elected after which his selection was made
unanimous. Dr. Charles Wesley was the other candidate voted for.

The new president has behind him an exceptional record of academic prepa-
ration and public service. He graduated in 1911 from Moorehouse College,
Atlanta, Ga., with the degree Bachelor of Arts, and was retained for two years
as Professor of Economics and History.

In 1913 he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the University of
Chicago; graduated from the Rochester Theological Seminary in 1919; was
student secretary of the International Committee of Young Men's Christian
Association, associated with Messrs. C. H. Tobias and Max Yergan; became pastor
of the First Baptist Church of Charleston, W. Va.; received degree of Bachelor
of Divinity from Rochester Theological Seminary for the writing of an his-
torical thesis entitled: "The Rise of the Knights Templars"; was Rochester
Theological Seminary Graduate Scholar at Harvard University, Cambridge,
Mass., graduated from Harvard University with degree Master of the Science
of Theology and had the Graduate Commencement Part with the address: "The
Faith of the American Negro"; was awarded honorary degree of Doctor of
Divinity at commencement of Howard University.

The new president is married and has three children. His salary will be
$10,000 a year and he will be provided with a presidential mansion on the campus.

Discussing the question of why the trustees picked someone outside the
faculty for the presidency, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, chairman of the com-
mittee of nomination, said:

"The trustees also considered Dr. Charles Wesley, head of the department
of history. He is an excellent man but on account of the internal troubles that
have been rife in Howard University it was the belief of the trustees that it
would be to the interest of all to select some outside man."

Just From Europe

Dr. Johnson is just from Europe, having been with a party of Americans in-
terested in interracial relations. This party was headed by Sherwood Eddy, inter-
nationally known Y. M. C. A. worker, who became interested in Dr. Johnson after
hearing him deliver an address before the chamber of commerce in Atlanta, Ga.,
on interracial relations. Mr. Eddy interested Julius Rosenwald, Chicago philan-
thropist, in Dr. Johnson. Mr. Rosenwald sought to endow him to deliver addresses
throughout the United States on interracial cooperation, but Dr. Johnson declined,
expressing a preference to remain as pastor of the First Baptist Church in
Charleston, W. Va., for a while.