Johnson, James Weldon (1871–1938)

Johnson was a poet, teacher, diplomat, and civil rights activist known for his work as general secretary for the NAACP from 1920 to 1930 and as a literary mover of the Harlem Renaissance in New York. He published three important anthologies of black poetry, volumes of original work including Fifty Years and Other Poems, and three books on race issues in America. From 1930 until his death in 1938, he taught literature at Fisk and New York Universities.