Willard Raymond Johnson is MIT Professor of Political Science Emeritus. Over the course of his lifelong career at MIT, Johnson's research has covered a broad range of African and African American studies--from the politics, policy strategies, and role of external human and capital resources in African development, to aspects of African and African American history, culture, philosophy, and inter-ethnic and foreign relations.

Throughout the 1970s and 80s, Prof. Johnson became a major faculty supporter of the anti-Apartheid movement at MIT. Johnson founded and continues to be active in the leadership of both The Boston Pan-African Forum (he played a significant role in bringing Nelson Mandela to the U.S. after his release from prison) and of The Kansas Institute of African American and Native American Family History (KIAANAFH).