Johnson Washington Hill

Born to enslaved parents in Petersburg, Virginia in 1865, Johnson Washington Hill was a Baptist minister, scholar, and physician.

Hill studied at several colleges and universities in addition to Yale. He graduated from Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute at Petersburg in 1888 and studied at Oberlin Seminary from 1888 to 1889. From 1892 to 1894, he studied at Newton Theological Seminary, then at Union Seminary and at Boston University Theological School. From 1894 to 1895, Hill attended Yale Divinity School, while serving as pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Norwalk, Connecticut. In 1895, he was ordained at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Boston. Hill received a BD or STB degree from Tufts College in 1900.

In 1900, Hill began studying medicine. He attended Harvard Medical School, Tufts Medical School, Boston University Medical School, and the Boston College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he received his MD in 1908. He began practicing medicine in addition to serving as minister of St. Stephen’s Baptist Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He continued his education, receiving a BA from Tufts in 1913. He also took classes towards a master's degree at Harvard University. It is not confirmed what degrees he may have received from Harvard. He also studied at Brown University.

A member of the American Medical Association and Massachusetts Medical Association, Hill married Estelle E. Mason in Boston in 1898. The couple went on to have five children. He later married Julia J. Moss in 1926.

Hill was active in the Baptist church, serving in leadership positions and as a convention delegate on many occasions. He was field secretary for a number of New England Baptist Missionary Conventions. In 1898 he became pastor of the Twelfth Baptist Church, Boston. He also served as a minister at Calvary Church in Norwalk, Connecticut; Union Congregational Church in Newport, Rhode Island; Zion Baptist Church in Everett, Massachusetts; Third Baptist Church in Lawrence, Massachusetts; and St. Stephen’s Church in Boston.

Hill received a doctor of divinity degree (1903) and an LLD (1904). Guadalupe College bestowed an honorary master's degree (1914) and an honorary PhD (1915) on Hill. He died in 1949.

"Letters to the Editor," The Pittsburgh Courrier, July 19, 1930.