The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)

James Weldon Johnson was a novelist, poet, lawyer, editor, and ethnomusicologist. He was also the coauthor of the hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often referred to as the Black national anthem.

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Johnson was educated at Atlanta University and Columbia University. He was the first Black lawyer admitted to the Florida bar. His diverse career included work as a songwriter in New York, service as the American consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua, executive secretary of the NAACP, and professor of creative literature at Fisk University.

His notable works include his autobiography, Along This Way, and the poetry collection God’s Trombones.

About the Introducer:

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University.

A distinguished filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Gates has authored or coauthored twenty-five books and created twenty-one documentary films, including the acclaimed Finding Your Roots. His PBS documentary, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, received an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, and an NAACP Image Award.