Writings: The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man/Along This Way/New York Age Editorials/Selected Essays/Black Manhattan/Selected Poems

by Johnson, James Weldon

• ISBN13: 9781931082525
• ISBN10: 1931082529
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-01-01
• Publisher: Penguin Group USA

Summary

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). Writingspresents 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.”

Author Biography

William L. Andrews, editor, is E. Maynard Adams Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, general editor of The Literature of the American South: A Norton Anthology, and co-editor, with Henry Louis Gates Jr., of The Library of America-'s Slave Narratives.

Table of Contents

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912)	p. 1
Along This Way (1933)	p. 125
Editorials from The New York Age (1914-23)
Do You Read Negro Papers?	p. 607
President Wilson's "New Freedom" and the Negro	p. 608
22 Calibre Statesmen	p. 611
Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Clansman	p. 612
The Passing of Jack Johnson	p. 614
A Trap	p. 616
"The Poor White Musician"	p. 617
Stranger Than Fiction	p. 620
Saluting the Flag	p. 622
Responsibilities and Opportunities of the Colored Ministry	p. 625
Under the Dome of the Capitol	p. 626
The Silent Parade	p. 628
An Army with Banners	p. 629
Experienced Men Wanted	p. 630
"Why Should a Negro Fight?"	p. 632
"Negro" with a Big "N"	p. 636
Protesting Women and the War	p. 639
The Japanese Question in California	p. 642
The "Jim Crow" Car in Congress	p. 644
A Real Poet	p. 645
Marcus Garvey's Inferiority Complex	p. 648
The New Exodus	p. 650
Selected Essays (1919-28)
The Riots	p. 655
Self-Determining Haiti	p. 660
Preface to The Book of American Negro Poetry	p. 688
Lynching - America's National Disgrace	p. 720
Preface to The Second Book of Negro Spirituals	p. 730
The Dilemma of the Negro Author	p. 744
Race Prejudice and the Negro Artist	p. 753
from Black Manhattan	p. 767
Selected Poems
Under the Bamboo Tree	p. 811
Fifty Years	p. 813
To America	p. 816
O Black and Unknown Bards	p. 817
Brothers	p. 818
Fragment	p. 820
The White Witch	p. 822
Mother Night	p. 824
Girl of Fifteen	p. 824
Down by the Carib Sea	p. 825
Sence You Went Away	p. 829
Nobody's Lookin' but de Owl an de Moon	p. 830
'Possum Song	p. 831
Brer Rabbit, You's de Cutes' of 'Em All	p. 833
God's Trombones (1927)
Preface	p. 834
Listen, Lord - A Prayer	p. 841
The Creation	p. 842
The Prodigal Son	p. 845
Go Down Death - A Funeral Sermon	p. 849
Noah Built the Ark	p. 851
The Crucifixion	p. 856
Let My People Go	p. 859
The Judgment Day	p. 865
Saint Peter Relates an Incident of the Resurrection Day	p. 868
My City	p. 873
If I Were Paris	p. 874
Lift Every Voice and Sing	p. 874
Chronology	p. 879
Note on the Texts	p. 892
Notes	p. 897
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