| Product Summary | | Format: Paperback | | ISBN: 9780143105176 | | Publisher: Penguin Books | | Publish Date: 1/29/2008 | | Buy.com Sku: 205098024 | | Item#: | | Dimensions (in Inches) 7.5H x 5L x 1T | | Pages: 432 |
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| | | The autobiography of the celebrated African American writer and civil rights activist
Published just four years before his death in 1938, James Weldon Johnsonas autobiography is a fascinating portrait of an African American who broke the racial divide at a time when the Harlem Renaissance had not yet begun to usher in the civil rights movement. Not only an educator, lawyer, and diplomat, Johnson was also one of the most revered leaders of his time, going on to serve as the first black president of the NAACP (which had previously been run only by whites), as well as write the groundbreaking novel "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man." Beginning with his birth in Jacksonville, Florida, and detailing his education, his role in the Harlem Renaissance, and his later years as a professor and civil rights reformer, "Along This Way" is an inspiring classic of African American literature.
| Author Bio| James Weldon Johnson | | Born to a Bahamanian mother and a free black man from Virginia, Johnson and his family moved to Jacksonville shortly before he was born. His father was a headwaiter at an top-drawer hotel, his mother a schoolteacher as well as a singer and poet. Both parents believed culture and education were good for people's character, and that racial integration began with art, music, and literature. Johnson attended Atlanta University and taught school, while writing poetry and songs. He also read law on his own and passed the Florida bar, but became a songwriter instead, first in partnership with his vaudeville-star brother, then with other collaborators. Eventually, however, songwriting wasn't enough for him, and he became interested in politics. He became active in the Republican party and in 1904 was appointed U.S. consul in Venezuela, followed by Nicaragua. During those years, he wrote his only novel, "Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man". He subsequently worked for the NAACP, helping it expand from 68 to 300+ branches, and taught literature at Fisk University. He wrote poetry and edited several volumes of African-American poetry and spirituals. Johnson died in a car crash in 1938, en route to his summer home in Maine. |
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