Shortly afterwards, the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957 and the ensuing Space Race led to the development of high school enrichment programs in science and mathematics, in which Johnson participated.

[5] Another role model at Texas was Vivienne Malone-Mayes, an African-American graduate student in mathematics and the grader for a linear algebra course taken by Johnson.

However, Johnson was advised to avoid the courses of Robert Lee Moore, "the real head of the pure math department", who was famous for his mentorship of young mathematicians but also notorious for his racism.

Rice's founding charter was to serve only the white citizens of Texas, but the university had determined to break both its racial and its state-based restrictions.

[4] At Rice, Johnson met his future wife, Claudette, then a sociology student at Texas Southern University, through their shared participation in protests during the Civil Rights Movement.

[11] He served as a mentor to 23 doctoral students, most of them African-American and many of them female; an administrator at Maryland wrote of his work in this area that "the institutional success of our Department in educating underrepresented minorities has been based on the leadership of Ray Johnson".