James Weldon Johnson
Early Years
 Born on June 17, 1871 in Jacksonville, Florida.
 His mother, Helen Louise, was the first African
American female to teach in public school; his
father, James, was a headwaiter. Both parents had
roots in Nassau, Bahamas.
 He was the 2nd of 3 children; his parents nurtured
his talents for music and reading.
 He visited Nassau and New York after graduating
from his mother’s school.
College
 James attended Atlanta University for 4 years and
received his A.B. degree in 1894.
 Johnson taught 2 summer semesters in rural
Hampton, Ga. Hampton introduced him to the
poor African-American class from which he had
been sheltered.
 The summer before his senior year, he attended
the Columbian Exposition in Chicago and listened
to Frederick Douglass give his “Colored People’s
Day” speech ,and heard Paul Laurence Dunbar
recite poetry. They soon became fast friends.
Breaking Records
 After graduating Atlanta University, James
became the principal of his mother's school;
Johnson felt that progression is key, and followed
by adding 9th and 10th grades. He was 23.
 Johnson was progressive; he started the 1st
newspaper for the black adult population, the
Daily American. He also became the 1st AfricanAmerican to pass the bar exam in the state of
Florida. He received his license to practice law
while still serving as public school principle.
Musical Productions
 “Tolosa”, a comic opera written
in 1899 failed in New York, cocomposed with his younger
brother John Rosamond, who
graduated from the New
England Conservatory of Music
in 1897.
 “Lift Every Voice and Sing”,
which became the “Negro
National Anthem”.
 Soon the brothers contracted
Bob Cole and moved to New
York, where the trio became
very successful.
Bob Cole, James Weldon Johnson,
and John Rosamond Johnson
Politician
 James found great success with the musical
brotherhood, but felt penned in by the racial
stereotypes of popular music.
 James enrolled in Columbia University in 1903 to
expand his literary horizons. Three yrs. Later he
acquired a consulship at Puerto Cabello, Venezuela.
This new and “relaxing” position mediated much
poetry and a novel.
 Corinto, Nicaragua became his new home in 1909.
A year later he married Grace Nail, the daughter of
a successful land developer from New York.
A Flurry of Artistry
 James soon finished his novel, The Autobiography of an
Ex-Colored Man, and published it anonymously in 1912.
James hoped the public would accept it as non-fiction.
 Johnson withdrew his consulship in 1913 and returned
to Jacksonville. After 1 year at home,he moved back to
New York and become an editorial writer for the New
York Age, an equal rights publication.
 In 1917 he gathered the courage to publish his first
collection of poetry, Fifty Years and Other Poems. The title
poem accrued overwhelming reviews when it first
appeared in the New York Times.
Public Activist
 After rising to the public eye for his champion of
equal rights,Joel E. Spingarn offered Johnson the
post of field secretary for the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1920,
four years after his 1916 field appointment, Johnson
became general secretary of the NAACP.
 As a permanent figure in the political arena,
Johnson must have felt a duty to produce. Several
lengthy anthologies of poems were published over
this course of time…
Anthologies
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The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922)
The Book of American Negro Spirituals (1925)
The Second Book of Negro Spirituals (1926)
God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927). This
collection is considered Johnson’s reigning masterpiece.
James took a leave of absence and then resigned from the
General Post in 1930.
Black Manhattan (1930) A black history of the Harlem
Renaissance.
Along This Way (1933). Here Johnson published a true
autobiography.
Negro Americans, What Now? (1934). In this novel, Johnson
argues that integration is the only solution to racial injustice.
Tragic Death
 In a tragic accident near his summer home in
Wiscasset, Maine a fast-moving train stuck
Johnson’s car as he was driving home. He
died June 26, 1938.
 Many black public schools hallowed the day
and attended Johnson’s Harlem funeral. Over
2,000 people gathered to see him off.