James Weldon Johnson
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James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 - June 26, 1938) was a leading African American author, poet, early civil rights activist, and prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, he was the first African American accepted to the Florida bar. He served in several public capacities, including as consul to Venezuela and Nicaragua, but he is best remembered today for his writing, which included novels, poems, and collections of folklore. In addition Mr. Johnson was a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc.
His first major literary sensation was The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912), a fictional account of a light-skinned black man's attempts to succeed and survive in the early 20th century. It was while serving as executive secretary of the NAACP from 1920 through 1931 that he released God's Trombones, one of the works he is best remembered for today. Other works by Johnson include an opera, Tolosa, and Negro Americans, What Now? (1934), a book calling for civil rights for African Americans. Johnson composed the lyrics for "Lift Every Voice and Sing", to which his brother Rosmund wrote the music. That song is more commonly known as the "Negro (or Black) National Anthem." Generations of black people have sung this song with great pride.
Johnson was one of the first African-American professors at New York University. James Weldon Johnson died in 1938,while on vacation in Wiscasset, Maine when the car he was driving was hit by a train.
External links
- Essays about James Weldon Johnson (http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/johnson/johnson.htm)
- Template:Gutenberg author