James Weldon Johnson: Writings

by James Weldon Johnson

"The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man" (1912), James Weldon Johnson's first book and the first modernist novel written by an African American, is a groundbreaking and subtle account of racial passing, initially published as an anonymous memoir. Its veracity?many believed it to be a genuine autobiography?has made it one of the undisputed masterpieces of African American literature and established Johnson in the African American literary vanguard of the first half of the twentieth century. He was also one of the central figures of the civil-rights struggle of his era, a tireless activist and longtime leader of the NAACP. Until now, however, his innovative and fascinating writings have never been gathered in a one-volume edition. Johnson's complex career spanned the worlds of diplomacy (as a U.S. consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua), politics (as secretary of the NAACP), journalism (as the founder of one newspaper and longtime editor of another), and musical theater (as lyricist for the Broadway song-writing team of Cole and Johnson Brothers). "Writings" presents a generous array of Johnson's essays which, with the early work of W.E.B. Du Bois, established the foundation of twentieth- century African American literary criticism; a selection of his topical editorials from the "New York Age"; and an offering of his poems and lyrics, including "God's Trombones"?a brilliant verse homage to African American preaching?vaudeville songs, protest poems, and perhaps Johnson's most famous work, ?Lift Every Voice and Sing, ? a stirring hymn often called the ?Negro National Anthem.?

Genres: Poetry, Fiction, Essays, Philosophy, Classics, African American, 20th Century

828 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

James Weldon Johnson 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.

Reviews

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Weldon Johnson In The Library Of America

For over 25 years, the Library of America has been publishing uniform editions of America's great writers, documenting our country's achievements in literature, history, philosophy, government, and other forms of letters. It is a truly worthwhile project. The series covers the United States in all its diversity, and many of the finest volumes in the series deal with the African-American experience and with the Civil Rights movement in all their facets and complexities. The LOA's single-volume edition, published in 2004, of the works of James Weldon Johnson (1871 -- 1938) is an outstanding addition to the series and an essential work for understanding the rise of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. More broadly, Johnson's writings are universal and will be of value for any reader interested in American literature.

Johnson had a varied career as a poet, novelist, essayist, editorial writer, diplomat, lawyer, educator, civil rights activist, and songwriter. His achievements in these fields are well-documented in this book. The LOA's anthology includes Johnson's famous novel of "passing", "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man" (1912); Johnson's own autobiography, "Along this Way" (1933), a generous selection of poetry, including "God's Trombones" (1928), together with selections from Johnson's history of African-Americans in New York City, "Black Manhattan" and selections from Johnson's essays and editorials.

The reader coming to Johnson for the first time might well begin with the poetry. Poetry and music seem to me Johnson's greatest loves and the source of his best accomplishments. Johnson's "Lift Every Voice and Sing" written in 1900 is probably his best-known individual work and is commonly referred to as the "Negro National Anthem". Johnson's poem "Fifty Years: 1863 -1913" commemorates President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and is a moving commentary on the work that remains to be done to implement the vision of that document. "God's Trombones" is Johnson's tribute to the African-American preacher with seven sermons in verse. There are many other poems in this volume for the reader to explore, many with African -American themes and many without them.

After reading the poetry, I suggest proceeding to Johnson's only novel, "The Autobiography of an ex-colored Man" published anonymously in 1912. This short novel offers an excellent picture of race relations as they were at the time. But the book's themes are universal in character as Johnson depicts his troubled protagonist, buffeted by chance events, and lacking the degree of self-knowledge to find himself.

Johnson's essays and newspaper editorials give an idea of the breadth of his interests. Johnson fought passionately against the practice of lynching, as documented in many places including his essay "Lynching: A National Disgrace". Johnson compiled ground-breaking anthologies of Negro Spirituals and African-American poetry, and the introductions to the anthologies are included here. Johnson's "Black Manhattan" is offered only in excerpts but the selections here show black contributions to the Broadway stage in which Johnson himself and his brother, Rosamund, played leading roles. The selection also includes an excellent portrayal of the blues singer, Clara Smith, who today has, unfortunately, faded into obscurity. ( She is not to be confused with the more famous singer, Bessie Smith).

I would turn last in this volume to Johnson's autobiography, "Along this Way." This is a detailed work in which Johnson describes for the reader his childhood, his education, and his many and varied careers and writings. It is a great autobiography in its own right, and the reader will best appreciate it with an initial familiarity with Johnson's other writings. There are unforgettable moments in the book, and scenes of Johnson's relationships with other influential African-American leaders, including DuBois, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Booker T. Washington.

These books are full of reflections and insights on philosophical and literary subjects, together with Johnson's thoughts and efforts regarding race relations in the United States. Johnson emphasized the great achievements of African-Americans in creating the spirituals, in poetry, and in music -- particularly ragtime. He wanted African-Americans to be proud of their heritage and accomplishments, and he wanted his non-African-American readers to become aware of and to appreciate these accomplishments. Johnson was a writer of great gifts and broad themes. The Library of America has done a great service by making accessible this collection of his works.

Robin Friedman

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been in love with the Library of America (LOA) for a long time now and there are two main reasons why. First, the uniform book designs are just gorgeous. Put a row of LOA’s books together on your shelf and they are a definite conversation start. On top of that, if you treat them well, these books will last a long time on your shelf long after your other books have yellowed and collected dust. The other reason why I love LOA books is because of their commitment to keeping great works of American literature, both well-known and lesser known, in print in perpetuity. This gives ordinary Americans a chance to discover more obscure, but wonderful, works by authors they may never have heard of, such as Henry Adams’s History of the United States During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and History of the United States During the Administrations of James Madison . This single-volume collection of the writings of James Weldon Johnson is another one of those more obscure gems that LOA has that deserves to better known.

For my full review, check out my book blog here.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Negro citizens of Jacksonville took great pride in the part they played in both of the ceremonies I have referred to. They were especially pleased with the brave showing they made before General Grant. I suppose, if the truth were known, the taciturn Grant was greatly bored by the performances of both whites and blacks. It occurs to me that the Negro citizens of Jacksonville would not at the present time be accorded an equivalent degree of recognition and participation in ceremonies or celebrations of this kind. And that comment would apply, I think, to Southern communities generally. Mr. Will Alexander of Atlanta holds that this shift in attitude is principally due to the rise in power of the poor whites, between whom and the Negro there is an old antagonism based on the differences in their actual economic status under the slave system, an antagonism that then bore more heavily upon the poor whites than upon the blacks. Of course, the settling down from the temporary heights of Reconstruction must be taken into account, but I feel that Mr. Alexander is, in the main, right. Long after the close of the Reconstruction period Jacksonville was known far and wide as a good town for Negroes. When I was growing up, most of the city policemen were Negroes; several members of the city council were Negroes; one or two justices of the peace were Negroes. When a paid fire department was established, one station was manned by Negroes. I was in my teens when the city government was reorganized and Joseph E. Lee, a Negro and a very able man and astute politician, was made Judge of the Municipal Court. Many of the best stalls in the city market were owned and operated by Negroes; Davis and Robinson, a firm of Negro commission merchants, were land stewards for the Clyde Steamship Company; and there was no such thing as a white-owned barber shop. I know that there was a direct relation between that state of affairs and the fact that Jacksonville was controlled by certain aristocratic families, families like the L'Engels, Hartridges, and Daniels's, who were sensitive to the code, noblesse oblige. The aristocratic families have lost control and the old conditions have been changed. Jacksonville is today a one hundred per cent Cracker town, and each time I have been back there I have marked greater and greater changes.

In this is epitomized one of the paradoxes of American democracy that the Negro has to wrestle with. We are told and we tell ourselves that as a race we belong to the proletariat and that our economic and political salvation lies in joining hands with our white fellow workers. Notwithstanding, it is true that the black worker finds getting into most of the white labor unions no easier than getting an invitation to a white bourgeois dinner paty.

There is another fact that bears interestingly on Mr. Alexander's theory, perhaps to confirm it further, a fact that must strike every observant person who goes through the deep rural South: Among the white people of those regions, people who have not yet tasted social or political power nor yet possessed the rewards of industrialism or come within its brutal field of competition, active antagonism against the Negro is lowest; so low indeed, it would probably die out if it were not continuously and furiously stirred by the working classes and the politicians (the social factor is powerful and intransigent, but at this level is in abeyance); by the working classes, determined to hold certain grades of work for white men only, and by the politicians, bent on preserving their rotten oligarchy by keeping alive the sole political issue upon which the "Solid South" rests. An important part is played also by those intellectuals who write to uphold the present status, many of whom are, I know, conscious that the system is unjust and uncivilized but are too timid to oppose or even question it. Their timidity often sinks to pusillanimity.

[MonicaBD · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m so glad I purchased the anthology. I read “The Autobiography of an Ex Colored Man” first. I wasn’t impressed by the story, but I was compelled by incidental references in the story that provided poignant glimpses into what it was like to live in those claustrophobic times.
I absolutely loved his poetry.
This book is an excellent addition to my library. It provided compelling historical insight and for that I give it five stars.

[Martin Bihl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man - finished 01.29.25

[Craig Werner]

This review focuses on JWJ's poetry. The towering masterpiece is God's Trombones, which joins Langston Hughes' The Weary Blues as the first volume to capture the vernacular power of African American voice. Johnson also wrote the lyrics to "Lift Every Voice and Sing" and the tribute to the spirituals/sorrow songs, "O Black & Unknown Bards," which is a deep tribute written in a curiously classical voice--a bit like the mix of deep musical tones and European poetry opening each chapter of W.E.B. DuBois's The Souls of Black Folk. It's not a deep corpus of poetry, but what there is matters and should be supplemented by Johnson's prefaces to "The Book of American Negro Poetry" and "God's Trombones."