Dr. Van Johnson’s Battle Against Racial Injustice: The Legal Lynching of a Black Psychiatrist in Anderson, Indiana

Van Johnson and the memoir that tells his tragic story, Framed and Profiled (Photo Provided). BHM Our Ancestors: Honoring the Pioneers – Stories about our legends who paved the way. & “There is an old saying: ‘Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.’ That phrase applies to my story, the first Black psychiatrist to open a practice in Anderson, Indiana. A lot of my white patients affectionately referred to this region as ‘Klan country’ or a Sundown town.”& This quote from Dr. Van Johnson’s memoir, “Framed & Profiled: The Legal Lynching of a Black Psychiatrist,” encapsulates the harsh realities he faced when his life was tragically derailed, revealing deep-seated injustices that would irrevocably alter his path. A young Black psychiatrist and Harvard fellow from the South Side of Chicago, Dr. Johnson moved to Anderson, Indiana, in May 1989, lured by promises of opportunity and belonging. Yet beneath this inviting facade of small-town living lay a brewing storm of racial bias and systemic injustice that would ultimately lead to a legal lynching. Dr. Johnson’s story is a stirring reflection of the broader struggle against racial injustice plaguing our society. His early life was shaped by the tumultuous context of Chicago’s segregation.& Despite...