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Umar Johnson, who tours internationally speaking to crowds on "Pan-Afrikanist" thought, will have a hearing in Harrisburg.
www.inquirer.com
Popular speaker Umar Johnson faces fines over lack of psychology license
by Cassie Owens, Posted: January 2, 2018 - 6:05 PM
EDGAR CERVANTES/FLICKR
Umar Johnson on stage.
Umar Johnson is taking a break. The popular Philadelphia-bred pundit had just finished a four-city "Kwanzaa tour" of Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, and Detroit. He spoke on special education, the black family, and what's called black uplift, themes he regularly mines for his 342,000-user Instagram following.
But over the holiday season, Johnson used that Instagram account to rally support for himself: His primary Facebook and GoFundMe have been suspended, he told his audience, and he faces discipline from Pennsylvania's Board of Psychology.
The state Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs has charged Johnson, known as "Dr. Umar," with portraying himself on his website as a psychologist who practices counseling services without a state license to do either. If that is proved, the board could levy fines and order Johnson to pay for the cost of the investigation.
In 2014, Johnson shared his vision of converting a defunct Virginia historically black college into a boarding school that he would name the Frederick Douglass and Marcus Garvey RBG International Leadership Academy for Black Boys. (Johnson regularly describes himself as a relative of Douglass, another claim that critics dispute.) He set a $5 million fund-raising goal that he hoped to hit by August, but did not. He had been raising money on GoFundMe, and recently said they'd hit around $400,000 before their campaign was suspended. This comes after accusations,
prominently argued on the Root, that Johnson's fund-raising lacked transparency and his organization lacked 501(c)(3) status
