James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938) was an American author, politician, diplomat, critic, journalist, poet, anthologist, educator, lawyer, songwriter, and early civil rights activist. Johnson is remembered best for his writing, which includes novels, poems, and collections of folklore. He was also one of the first African-American professors at New York University. Later in life he was a professor of creative literature and writing at Fisk University.Contents [hide] 1 Diplomacy 2 Literature and Anthology 3 Poetry 4 Activism 5 Awards, Honors, and Legacy 5.1 Veneration 6 Selected works 6.1 Poetry 6.2 Other works and collections 7 Notes 8 Other references 9 See also 10 External links
[edit] Diplomacy
In 1906 Johnson was consul of Puerto Cabello, Venezuela. In 1909, he transferred to Corinto, Nicaragua.[1] During his stay at Corinto a rebellion occurred against President Adolfo Diaz. Johnson proved himself an effective diplomat under times of strain.[1] During his work in the foreign service, Johnson became a published poet, with work printed in the The Century Magazine and in The Independent.[2] [edit] Literature and Anthology
During his six-year stay in Hispanic America he completed his most famous book The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man which was published anonymously in 1912. It was only during 1927 that Johnson admitted his authorship — stressing that it was not a work of autobiography but mostly fictional. Other works include The Book of American Negro Spirituals (1925), Black Manhattan (1930), his exploration of the contribution of African-Americans to the culture of New York, and Negro Americans, What Now? (1934), a book advocating civil rights for African Americans. Johnson was also an anthologist. His anthologies concerned African-American themes and were part of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s.[3] He also wrote the melody for the song Dem Bones. [edit] Poetry
In 1922, he edited The Book of American Negro Poetry, which the Academy of American Poets calls "a major contribution to the history of African-American literature."[2] One of the works for which he is best remembered today, God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse, was published in 1927 and celebrates the tradition of the folk preacher. In 1917, Johnson published 50 Years and Other Poems. [edit] Activism
Johnson's former residence, located in the Logan Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., while serving as national organizer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
While attending Atlanta University Johnson became known as an influential campus speaker. He won the Quiz Club Contest in English Composition and Oratory in 1892. The contest topic was "The Best Methods of Removing the Disabilities of Caste from the Negro". In addition, Johnson founded the newspaper the Daily American and in 1895 and became its editor. The newspaper concerned both political and racial topics. It was terminated a year later due to financial difficulty. These early endeavors were the start of what would prove to be a long period of activism.
Johnson became further involved with political activism during 1904 when he accepted a position as the treasurer of the Colored Republican Club started by Charles W. Anderson. A year later he became the president of the club. His duties as president included organizing political rallies.[1] During 1914 Johnson became editor of the editorial page of the New York Age, an influential African American weekly newspaper that had supported Booker T. Washington in his propaganda struggle with fellow African American W. E. B. Du Bois during the early twentieth century. Johnson's writing for the Age displayed the political gift that soon made him famous.
In the fall of 1916, because Johnson excelled as a reconciler of differences among those whose ideological agendas seemed to preclude unified, cooperative action, he was asked to become the national organizer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Opposing race riots in northern cities and the lynchings that pervaded the South during and immediately after the end of World War I, Johnson engaged the NAACP in mass tactics, such as a silent protest parade down New York's Fifth Avenue in which ten thousand African Americans took part on July 28, 1917. In 1920 Johnson was elected to manage the NAACP, the first African American to hold this position.[4] While serving the NAACP from 1914 through 1930 Johnson started as an organizer and eventually became the first black male secretary in the organization's history. In 1920, he was sent by the NAACP to investigate conditions in Haiti, which had been occupied by U.S. Marines since 1915. Johnson published a series of articles in The Nation, in which he described the American occupation as being brutal and offered suggestions for the economic and social development of Haiti. These articles were reprinted under the title Self-Determining Haiti.[5] Throughout the 1920s he was one of the major inspirations and promoters of the Harlem Renaissance trying to refute condescending white criticism and helping young black authors to get published. While serving in the NAACP Johnson was involved in sparking the drive behind the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill of 1921.
Shortly before his death, Johnson supported efforts by Ignatz Waghalter, a Polish-Jewish composer who had escaped the Nazis, to establish a classical orchestra of African-American musicians. According to musical historian James Nathan Jones, the formation of the "American Negro Orchestra" represented for Johnson "the fulfillment of a dream he had for thirty years."
James Weldon Johnson died during 1938 while vacationing in Wiscasset, Maine, when the car he was driving was hit by a train. His funeral in Harlem was attended by more than 2000 people.[6] [edit] Awards, Honors, and Legacy James Weldon Johnson Middle School is named in his honor. On February 2, 1988, the United States Postal Service issued a 22 cent postage stamp in his honor.[7] In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed James Weldon Johnson on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.[8] Springarn Medal from NAACP, 1925 for outstanding achievement by an American Negro.[9] Harmon Gold Award for God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse.[9] Julius Rosenwald Fund Grant, 1929.[9] W. E. B. Du Bois Prize for Negro Literature, 1933, named first incumbent of Spence Chair of Creative Literature at Fisk University.[9] Honorary Master's degree from Atlanta University.[1] Honorary doctorates from Talladega College and Howard University.[9] [edit] Veneration
Johnson is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on June 25. [edit] Selected works [edit] Poetry To a Friend (1892) A Brand (1893) The Color Sergeant (1898) Lift Every Voice and Sing (1899) Sense You Went Away (1900) The Black Mammy (1900) O Black and Unknown Bards (1908) Brothers (1916) Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917) My City (1923) God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927) Saint Peter Relates an Incident (1935) The Glory of the Day was in Her Face Selected Poems (1936) [edit] Other works and collections The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912/1927) Self-Determining Haiti The Book of American Negro Poetry Harcourt, Brace, and Company Second Book of Negro Spirituals Black Manhattan Negro Americans, What Now? Along This Way The Selected Writings of James Weldon Johnson [edit] Notes ^ a b c d James Weldon Johnson, The Literary Encyclopedia ^ a b James Weldon Johnson, profile by The Academy of America Poets ^ James Weldon Johnson, 1871-1938 - Biography ^ The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay, New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 2004 (Second Edition), p.791-792. ^ http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/amlit/johnson/johnson4.html ^ The Oxford Companion to African American Literature, edited by William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, Trudier Harris, New York, Oxford, 1997, p. 404 ff. ^ Scott catalog # 2371. ^ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York. Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-963-8. ^ a b c d e http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap9/jwjohnson.html [edit] Other references James Weldon Johnson: Writings (William L. Andrews, editor) (The Library of America), 2004) ISBN 978-1-93108252-5. Levy, Eugene. James Weldon Johnson: Black Leader, Black Voice. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1973. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay, New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 2004 (Second Edition), p. 791-792. The Oxford Companion to African American Literature, edited by William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, Trudier Harris, New York, Oxford, 1997, p. 404 ff. Yenser, Thomas (editor), Who's Who in Colored America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Persons of African Descent in America, Brooklyn, New York, 1930-1931-1932 (Third Edition)
