Anna Johnson Julian, born Anna Roselle Johnson (November 24, 1903 – July 3, 1994) was the first African-American woman awarded a PhD in sociology by the University of Pennsylvania (1937), a civic activist, and fourth national president of Delta Sigma Theta, a historically black sorority.

In the 1930s, Julian studied factors inhibiting children's education and taught sociology at the University of the District of Columbia then known as Miner Teachers College.

Julian died in Oak Park at the age of 90, having received numerous honors, including honorary doctorates from three universities.

[2][1] In 1919, Johnson began studying for a Bachelor of Science in Education degree at the University of Pennsylvania, joining the sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, later serving as its fourth national president from 1929 to 1931.

[5] In June 1925 Julian became a case worker for the Family Service Association in Washington, DC, a private relief agency.

[5] In 1931, Julian enrolled in graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, continuing to work in DC as she pursued further study, attending classes in Philadelphia.

[12] The commission had 15 members, advising on the "legal, social and moral" aspects of state-sponsored birth control to women receiving state aid.

[5] Anna and Percy Julian founded the Chicago chapter of the NAACP's Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

[11] Racial barriers had prevented Percy Julian's appointment to a position at his alma mater, DePauw University, and elsewhere.

[11] Not yet financially established, Anna Julian continued to live and work in Washington, D.C. while pursuing her PhD in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, while her husband took a position in Chicago.

[2][14][1] In 1950, the couple bought a 15-room house in the upscale, white neighborhood Oak Park, Chicago, a community that "Ernest Hemingway, a native son, once referred to as the village of 'broad lawns and narrow minds'.

"[10] Julian spent the rest of her life in the Oak Park home, and lived to see her husband honored locally with a junior high school named after him in 1985.