This county in Iowa just received the ultimate name upgrade! Johnson County, Iowa will still operate as Johnson County but will take its name from another Johnson — the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in the state. According to NPR, Lulu Merle Johnson was a professor and historian born in 1907 in a small town by the name of Gravity located in southwestern Iowa. Her father was born into slavery and would go on to work as a barber. Johnson’s mother was the daughter of freed slaves. During the time of her enrollment at the State University of Iowa in 1925, Johnson was one of 14 Black women at the university. She completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the university by 1930 before receiving her Ph.D. in 1941. Johnson was the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. from the university, now known as the University of Iowa. According to university biography, she was the `tenth Black woman in the country to receive a doctorate from a university within the states. “Through her...