The great James Weldon Johnson was born on this day in 1871 in Jacksonville, Florida.
He was at various times in his life a poet, educator, lawyer, diplomat, songwriter, and activist.
James Weldon Johnson’s writings included the Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, Along the Way, and God’s Trombones. Oh, and Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing…
A civil rights leader, US counsel to Venezuela and Nicaragua,. first African American to be named a professor at New York University, and later professor of creative literature at Fisk, he may at this point be best remembered as one of the leading lights of the Harlem Renaissance.
(the Portrait of Professor Johnson is by Weinold Reiss)
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