The NAACP Lincoln Branch awarded the 2025 Leola Bullock Community Service Award to Marilyn Johnson-Farr, Ph.D., an education professor at Doane University. Johnson-Farr received the award during the organization’s Freedom Fund Banquet on October 11, 2025.
Mississippi native Bullock was a civil rights leader and activist who moved to Lincoln in 1950. She served as NAACP president and on many boards, including the Malone Community Center, Nebraskans Against the Death Penalty, Nebraskans for Peace, YWCA and others.
Johnson-Farr has long demonstrated a similar commitment to connection and community. She previously worked as an educator with Lincoln Public Schools (LPS) for a number of years before starting at Doane in 2003.
“As an educator, the idea of giving back is at the core of who I am because I feel it is essential to keep lifting others as I climb,” Johnson-Farr said.
She has volunteered with local nonprofits like Lincoln Children’s Museum, Lincoln Police Advisory Board, Nebraska Loves Public Schools, Malone Community Center and Friendship Home.
But Johnson-Farr and Bullock are connected through more than an award.
In 2010, Johnson-Farr had the honor of presenting Bullock with an honorary degree from Doane. And outside her and her colleagues’ offices hangs a pop-art style painting of Bullock. In 2015, the university purchased the painting of Bullock and four others of civil rights leaders. Schoo Middle School students painted the artwork for the 20th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Rally and March, which Bullock helped found.
The award highlights Johnson-Farr’s longtime dedication to service, which is still growing strong. She’s currently in her first year of a four-year term as an elected LPS Board of Education member. And she hopes to inspire her students to serve their communities outside their future classrooms.
