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James Weldon Johnson

James Weldon Johnson

James Weldon Johnson was an American author, poet, civil rights activist, and prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He was also one of the first African-American professors at New York University. Johnson's works include The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, God’s Trombones, Tolosa, and Negro Americans, What Now? Johnson also composed the lyrics of "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing."

  • Nationality: American
  • Birth Date: 17 June 1871
  • Death Date: 26 June 1938
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Available Works

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912)
James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is a fictional, tragic tale about a young mulatto's coming-of-age in the early 20th century. The unnamed narrator, who has a black mother and white father, is light-skinned enough to pass for a white man but his emotional connections to his mother's heritage make him unable to fully embrace that world.

Individual Passages

Lift Every Voice and Sing
A poem describing the perils our fathers went through to keep their homeland free.