The newly elected Chicago Public School Board President Reverend Mitchell Ikenna Johnson announced his resignation on Thursday after facing criticism for past antisemitic and conspiratorial social media posts.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (no relation), who had previously defended the now-former CPS board president, asked for Rev. Johnson’s resignation after Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and over 40 alderpersons demanded he step down for writing a series of posts praising Hamas after October 7 and justifying the attacks against Jews who support Israel.
“Any person charged with the stewardship of the Chicago Public School Board must exemplify focused, inclusive, and steady leadership,” Pritzker, who is Jewish, said in a statement early on Thursday.
“The views expressed in the current chair’s posts – antisemitism, misogyny, fringe conspiracy theories – very clearly do not meet that standard. We owe it to our students, families, and teachers to provide the highest quality education, and that begins at the top by setting a positive example of kindness and inclusivity.”
According to a review of Johnson’s public and private Facebook posts following October 7, he invoked the Holocaust in numerous posts, writing last December: “How can a group of people who have suffered from the Holocaust; today join with the Alt Right Community?”
“The Nazi Germans’ ideology has been adopted by the Zionist Jews,” he wrote in February and, in March: “The Israeli government offers a renewal of Nazi language once directed toward European Jews, ‘savages, dogs, vermin.’”
Johnson wrote that his Jewish colleagues “appear drunk with the Israeli power and will live to see their payment,” and another post appeared to criticise the way women handle money in comparison to men. Johnson also reportedly posted that the 9/11 terror attacks on New York and elsewhere were an “inside job.”
NEW: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has chosen a 9/11 conspiracy theorist to be president of the nation’s fourth-largest school district.
On January 11, 2024, Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson posted a video entitled “3,000 EXPERTS AGREE: 9/11 Really Was An Inside Job”
Rev. Johnson… pic.twitter.com/G0JH8TuqRD
— Austin Berg (@Austin__Berg) October 31, 2024
“Rev. Mitchell Johnson’s statements were not only hurtful but deeply disturbing,” the mayor said in a statement. “I want to be clear: antisemitic, misogynistic, and conspiratorial statements are unacceptable.”
On Wednesday, Johnson apologised to “the Jewish community” for his social media posts during an interview with WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times, adding that they were “clearly reactive and insensitive.”
50th Ward Alderwoman Debra Silverstein said of Johnson’s resignation on Thursday: “Thank you to the more than 40 Chicago aldermen and other elected officials who came together over the last 24 hours to call for a change in leadership. Rev. Mitchell Johnson’s decision to resign from the Chicago Public School Board is in the best interests of our city.
BREAKING: Chicago Public School Board President Rev. Mitchell Johnson has announced his resignation.
Thank you to the more than 40 Chicago aldermen and other elected officials who came together over the last 24 hours to call for a change in leadership. Rev. Mitchell Johnson’s… pic.twitter.com/FjJghAGg2n
— Alderman Debra Silverstein (@50thWardChicago) October 31, 2024
“Next week, a group of Chicagoans will be elected to our School Board, joining Mayor Brandon Johnson’s appointees, and I hope this group will promote inclusivity and tolerance while delivering a world-class education to our young people and support to parents and caregivers.”
Pritzker previously said there should have been more vetting done before Johnson was appointed to the board just a week ago.
The mayor has said he will appoint a replacement for Johnson.