James Weldon Johnson

James Weldon Johnson
Photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1932
Executive Secretary of the NAACP
In office 1920–1929
Preceded by	John Shillady
Succeeded by	Walter White
In office 1917–1918
Preceded by	Royal Freeman Nash
Succeeded by	John Shillady
Personal details
Born	(1871-06-17)June 17, 1871 Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.
Died	June 26, 1938(1938-06-26) (aged 67) Wiscasset, Maine, U.S.
Resting place	Green-Wood Cemetery
Spouse	Grace Nail
Relatives	J. Rosamond Johnson (brother) Stephen Dillet (maternal grandfather)
Education	Atlanta University (BA)
Awards	Spingarn Medal
Writing career
Period	Harlem Renaissance (1891–1938)
Subject	Civil rights
Notable works	"Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" (1900) The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912) God's Trombones (1927)

James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938) was an American writer and civil rights activist. He was married to civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson. Johnson was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where he started working in 1917. In 1920, he was chosen as executive secretary of the organization, effectively the operating officer.^[1] He served in that position from 1920 to 1930. Johnson established his reputation as a writer, and was known during the Harlem Renaissance for his poems, novel and anthologies collecting both poems and spirituals of Black culture. He wrote the lyrics for "Lift Every Voice and Sing", which later became known as the Black National Anthem, the music being written by his younger brother, composer J. Rosamond Johnson.

Johnson was appointed under President Theodore Roosevelt as U.S. consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua for most of the period from 1906 to 1913. In 1934, he was the first African American professor to be hired at New York University.^[2] Later in life, he was a professor of creative literature and writing at Fisk University, a historically Black university.