Pure Thoughts: National Poetry Month (Pt. 4)

I’m sure you are familiar with the momentous anthem, “Lift Ev’ry Voice And Sing.”

The composer, James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938) was an American author, politician, diplomat, critic, journalist, poet, anthologist, educator, lawyer, songwriter, and early civil rights activist. Johnson is remembered best for his leadership within the NAACP, as well as for his writing, which includes novels, poems, and collections of folklore.

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, the son of Helen Louise Dillet and James Johnson.  His brother was the composer John Rosamond Johnson. Johnson was first educated by his mother (a musician and a public school teacher—the first female, black teacher in Florida at a grammar school) and then at Edwin M. Stanton School.  His mother imparted to him her considerable love and knowledge of English literature and the European tradition in music.

At the age of 16, Johnson enrolled at Atlanta University, from which he graduated in 1894.  In addition to his bachelor's degree, he also completed some graduate coursework there.  He was also one of the first Black professors at New York University. Later in life he was a professor of creative literature and writing at Fisk University.

In 1900, he wrote the song "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" on the occasion of Lincoln's birthday.  The song was immensely popular in the black community, and became known as the "Negro National Anthem." Johnson moved to New York in 1901 to work with his brother Rosamond, a composer.  After attaining some success as a songwriter for Broadway, he decided in 1906 to take a job as a U.S. Consul to Venezuela. While employed by the diplomatic corps, Johnson had poems published in The Century Magazine and The Independent.

Additionally, in 1912 Mr. Johnson, Johnson anonymously published his novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, the story of a musician who rejects his black roots for a life of material comfort in the white world.  The book explores the issue of racial identity in the twentieth century, a common theme for the writers of the Harlem Renaissance. 

His book of poetry God's Trombones (1927) was influenced by his impressions of the rural South, drawn from a trip he took to Georgia while a freshman in college. It was this trip that ignited his interest in the Black American folk tradition. 

Below is a video featuring one of his many poetic works, “THE CREATION:”

 

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