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Essay on THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JAMES WELDON JOHNSON
| Date: |
03-24-99 10:05pm |
| Subject: |
Biographies |
| Word Count: |
1334 |
| Page Count: |
5.34 |
THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JAMES WELDON JOHNSON
James Weldon Johnson was a writer, diplomat, professor, and editor,who also described himself as a man of letters and a civil rights leader. Even though, he is no longer living, James Weldon Johnson has left much abouthis contributions to African American literature.
Johnson was born June 17,1871 in Jacksonville, Florida to James and Helen Louise (Dallied) Johnson.
Johnson’s father, James Johnson, was born a freeman and was of mixed ancestry. He was a headwaiter in St. James Hotel. Mr. Johnson taughthis son how to speak Spanish as a young boy. Johnson’s mother, Helen Johnson, was born a free woman in the West Indies. Mrs. Helen was awoman of French and Black ancestry. She was the first black American to teach in the state of Florida. Mrs. Helen also taught her son to play the guitar(Otfinoski 22).
Johnson was born the second of three children: John Rosamond, also known as "Rozy," and a sister which died shortly after birth (Logan and Winston, " James Weldon Johnson" 353). He was originally named Johnson "James William Johnson," by his parents, but in 1913, he changed his middle name to Weldon (Kranz, "James Weldon Johnson" 78).
Sept 1
Johnson was a well-educated man of his time. During his first few
years of school he attended, Stanton, which offered blacks an education up to
the eight grade. Stanton was one of the best black schools in Johnson’s
hometown. He graduated from Stanton at the age of 16 and went on to attend
a secondary school and college at Atlanta University.
Johnson attended Atlanta University in Georgia because there were no
school’s beyond grammar school for blacks in Jacksonville, Florida and the
university ran a special high school program for blacks (23,28). Johnson
furthered his education at the university believing that it would educate him
more in his interest of black people (Adams 155).
In 1894, Johnson graduated with honors from Atlanta University
receiving his bachelor’s degree. He also gave the graduation speech (Kanzs
77-79).
During Johnson’s lifetime he had many careers helping others and
writing. Johnson was a poet, songwriter, editor, civil rights leader, lawyer,
educator, and diplomat (Metzger et. al. 303). Russell L. Adams, author of
Great Negroes Past and Present, stated, "Johnson had a talent for persuading
people of differing ideological agendas to work together for a common goal.
. . " (Adams 77-79).
Sept 2
Paying his own way through school, Johnson worked in a lathe factory
during college and in the summer at a rural school teaching in Georgia, which
paid a nickel per student, to help pay his way through college (Otfinoski 23).
When Johnson graduated from Atlanta University in 1894, he turned
down a medical scholarship at Harvard to accept a job as principal at the All-
Black Stanton school in Jacksonville, Florida. While principal at Stanton,
Johnson visited local white schools to compare the levels of education being
taught because he felt that all black children in his hometown should have the
same opportunity of being taught the same levels of education. So, in doing
that he started secretly teaching freshman classes without the supervisor’s
permission. After Johnson told his supervisor about teaching freshman
classes, he was so impressed that he decided to expand Stanton to a four-year
high school for blacks (23).
By 1901 Johnson was financially and mentally secure enough from his
song royalties he decided it was time to resign as principal in Jacksonville and
devote all of his time to writing. So, he moved to New York City with his
brother, Rosamond.
While in New York City Johnson met a young person by the name of
Grace Nail, the daughter of a real estate broker, at a dance (Tolbert-
Sept 3
Rouchaleau 55). On February 3, 1910, Grace Nail became the wife of James
Weldon Johnson.
Also while living in New York, he studied drama and literature at
Columbia University and graduated in 1905 (Otfinoski 25).
Johnson’s mother encouragement in reading, drawing, and listening to
music really paid off (Metzger et. Al. 304). He started writing in a black
dialect, influenced by Paul Dunbar, and standard english on racial issues that
he was witnessing around him (Kranz 78).
Johnson had many of his poems published in the Century and the
Independent magazines. Johnson’s first poem, Since You Went Away, was
published in the Century magazine and set to music by his brother to become
a popular song. Johnson and his brother also wrote the song, Lift Every Voice
and Sing, to celebrate Lincoln’s birthday, in 1900s. Later, it became the
National Anthem of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People).
In May of 1885, Johnson and his friends published the first African
American daily newspaper in the U.S., but with the lack of readers failed the
newspaper within eight months. In 1912, he published his first novel, The
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, which sold very poorly until the
Sept 4
1920s.
In 1927, Johnson had many of his poetry published in one of his finest
books, God Trombones. This book contained seven folk sermons in verses, as
if a black preacher in the south was preaching them. Here is a part of one
sermon from that book:
The Creation
Then God walked around,
And God looked around
On all that he had made.
He looked at His sun
And He looked at his moon,
And He looked at His little stars;
He looked on His world
With all it living things,
And God said: "I’m lonely still."
Then God sat down
On the side of the hill where He could think;
By a deep, wide river He sat down;
With His head in His hands,
God thought and thought,
Till He thought: "I’ll make me a man!"
Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled Him down;
And there the great God Almighty,
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the
Sept 5
night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of His hands,
This great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till He shaped it in His own image;
Then into it He blew of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen.
In 1916, Johnson joined the NAACP as field secretary. In 1920, he
became the first African American to be appointed secretary of the NAACP.
In 1930, Johnson resigned from to return teaching at Fisk University in
Nashville, Tennessee as a professor of Creative literature.
According to my readings, Johnson won many awards in his lifetime
doing positive things. Some of his awards including the Springarn Medal from
the NAACP, (1925) and W.E.B. Du Bois Prize for Negro Literature, (1933).
He was the first black American to pass the Florida Bar exam after eight
months of studying with a white attorney (Otfinoski 22).
Johnson was killed on June 6, 1938 on his way from is home in Great
Barrington, Maine by a train in a blinding rainstorm. Johnson died soon after
Sept 6
the accident at the age of 67 and his wife, who was driving was injured and
remained in the hospital for many weeks (Tolbert-Roychaleau 102).
Johnson’s tragic death was followed by the funeral of his dreams:
"Over 2000 persons attended Johnson’s
funeral on June 30, in Salem Methodist
Church with Rev. Frederick officiating . ..
Johnson was buried, at his request, in his
lounging robe, and a formal trouser, with a
copy of "God Trombones," in his hands, in
Brooklyn’s Greenwood Cemetery . . . ."
(Logan and Winston 353)
To conclude this paper, James Weldon Johnson was an outgoing
person, a great writer, teacher, and a public speaker. But one thing I will
always remember Johnson for is his writing of "Lift Every Voice and Sing,"
which is known as the Black National Anthem. Johnson has also
accomplished many other things in his lifetime as an African American
because he would do anything to get a job done right the first time.
Bibliography
WORKS CITED
Adams, Russell L. . "James Weldon Johnson." Great Negroes Past and
Present. 16:27:17 (1984) Internet. 12 Feb. 1998
" James Weldon Johnson." Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia. CD-ROM.
1997 ed.
Kranz, Rachel C. " James Weldon Johnson." The Biographical Dictionary of
Black Americans. 1992 ed.
Logan, Rayford, and Michael Winston. " James Weldon Johnson."
Dictionary of American Negro Biography. 1982 ed.
Metzger, Linda, et. Al. Black Writers. Detroit: Gales Research Inc., 1988
Otfinoski, Steven. Great Black Writers. New York: Facts On File, 1994
Patterson, Lindsay. International Library of Negro Life: An Introduction To
Black Literature In America. New York: Publishers Company, Inc.,
1968
Tolbert- Rouchaleau, Jane. Black Americans of Achievement. New York:
Chelsea House Publishers, 1988
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