James Weldon Johnson

"First published anonymously in 1912, "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man" is James Weldon?s Johnson fictional account of a young biracial man living in America during the second half of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century. The so-called "Ex-Colored" man makes his living as a jazz pianist playing ragtime music at a popular New York club. It is here that he catches the attention of a wealthy white gentleman who takes a curious interest...

In his long career James Weldon Johnson established himself as a poet, composer, lawyer, diplomat, educator, and journalist. Yet he wrote only one novel: The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. Published anonymously in 1912, it received scant notice until its reissue in 1927 at the height of the Harlem Renaissance. A landmark in African-American writing, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man was the first black novel written in the first person,...

African-American scholars have cited James Weldon Johnson's 1927 book of poems, "God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse" as one of the author's most notable works. Johnson, who is best known for his 1912 work, "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man", was an American writer and civil rights activist born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1871. As a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Johnson helped to bring awareness...

The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922) is an anthology by James Weldon Johnson. Alongside some of his own poems, Johnson includes the work of such legendary artists as Paul Laurence Dunbar, W. E. B. Du Bois, Jessie Fauset, and Georgia Douglas Johnson. Carefully selected and supported with a masterful preface by Johnson, the poems herein reflect a range of voices, styles, and subjects drawn from tradition and experience alike. In his preface, Johnson...

Originally published in 1930 and now back in print with an introduction by Zadie Smith, Black Manhattan traces the Black experience in New York City from its origins in the seventeenth century, through the Revolutionary and Civil War periods, to the triumphant achievements of the Harlem Renaissance. Written by one of the leading Black scholars and activists of the first half of the twentieth century, this timeless book also illuminates Black literature,...

An illustrated version of the song that has come to be considered the African American national anthem.

An illustrated version of the song that has come to be considered the African American national anthem.