Who is James Weldon Johnson

James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938) was an American writer and civil rights activist. He was married to civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson. Johnson was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where he started working in 1917. In 1920, he was the first African American to be chosen as executive secretary of the organization, effectively the operating officer. He served in that position from 1920 to 1930. Johnson established his reputation as a writer, and was known during the Harlem Renaissance for his poems, novel, and anthologies collecting both poems and spirituals of black culture. He wrote the lyrics for "Lift Every Voice and Sing", which later became known as the Negro National Anthem, the music being written by his ...
Read Full Biography

---

James Weldon Johnson Poems

• You's Sweet To Yo' Mammy Jes De Same
  (Lullaby)
  
  
  Shet yo' eyes, ma little pickaninny, go to sleep...
• Voluptas
  To chase a never-reached mirage
  Across the hot, white sand,
  And choke and die, while gazing on
  Its green and watered strand....
• Venus In A Garden
  'Twas at early morning,
  The dawn was blushing in her purple bed,
  When in a sweet, embowered garden
  She, the fairest of the goddesses,...
• Vashti
  I sometimes take you in my dreams to a far-off land I used to know,
  Back in the ages long ago; a land of palms and languid streams.
  
  A land, by night, of jeweled skies, by day, of shores that glistened bright,...
• Tunk
  (A Lecture on Modern Education)
  
  
  Look heah, Tunk!-Now, ain't dis awful! T'ought I sont you off to school....

Read All Poems

---

James Weldon Johnson Quotes

Read All Quotes

---

Comments about James Weldon Johnson

• Pinellasarts: jake-ann jones shared an inspirational story about how cultured books, the barbershop book club and always truth incorporated joined the global black children's book week festival from st. pete's james weldon johnson community library.
• Stpetefl: join us on tuesdays 4-5pm at james weldon johnson community library, north community library and south community library for reading buddies! children in kindergarten-3rd grade can practice + gain confidence in their reading with a trained buddy!
• Soulcitysigma: the history of the james weldon johnson branch is typical of the jim crow south.
• Dribram: new york’s world fair commissioned savage to create a sculpture evoking the contributions of african american music. she decided to create a harp as a symbol of african american spirituals and hymns, inspired by james weldon johnson’s 1900 poem, lift every voice and sing. 3/

Read All Comments