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Carleton College Convocation: Shelton Johnson

Shelton Johnson, a ranger with the National Park Service for 25 years and author of the fictional memoir Gloryland (Sierra Club Books, 2009), will deliver Carleton College’s convocation address on Friday, February 3. Johnson’s presentation, entitled “Gloryland: Using History and Literature as Tools for Social Change,” will look at his book, a portrait of a fictional African-American “buffalo soldier” in the 19th-century U.S. cavalry. A booksigning will follow the presenation, with copies of Gloryland available for purchase at a 15% discount. Convocation is held from 10:50-11:50 a.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel, and is free and open to the public.

Currently assigned to Yosemite National Park in California, Johnson is an advocate for bringing minorities, particularly African Americans from the inner city, to natural parks in order to form bonds with the natural world. He has said that “one of the great losses to African culture from slavery was the loss of kinship with the earth.”

After coming across the history of the buffalo soldiers of the 24th Infantry and 9th Cavalry in and around Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, Johnson focused on learning more about them. For fifteen years he has been telling the story of the buffalo soldiers in print, on camera and in person, traveling to public schools across the country. He has become known as an expert on the buffalo soldiers and a strong advocate for national parks. Johnson was featured in Ken Burns’ documentary “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea”; the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called him the film’s “unexpected star.” Johnson attended a preview of the film at the White House and was able to discuss it with President Barack Obama.

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Johnson is a native of Detroit but developed his love of the outdoors in Germany, where his father was stationed in the U.S. Army. He has cited a family trip to the Bavarian Alps as planting the seed of his future career in the national parks. Johnson has said that he has never forgotten his roots. “I can’t forget that little black kid in Detroit. And I think of the other kids just like me—in Detroit, Oakland, Watts, Anacostia—today. How do I get them here? How do I let them know that our national parks are part of their heritage, and that they own them like all Americans?”

Copies of Gloryland are currently available for purchase at the Carleton College Bookstore at a 15 percent discount, and will also be available for purchase at the event. For more information about this convocation, including disability accommodations, contact the Carleton College Office of College Relations at (507) 222-4308. The Carleton Bookstore is located on the main level of the Sayles Hill Campus Center, located on College Street on the Carleton campus. Skinner Memorial Chapel is located on First Street between College and Winona Streets in Northfield.

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