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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.