James weldon johnson

Lift every voice and sing

James Weldon Johnson

Grand Old Partisan applauds James Weldon Johnson, born in Jacksonville this day of 1871. Graduating from Atlanta University, he taught school and rose to be principal. In 1900, he wrote the poem Lift Every Voice and Sing to honor Republican...

William H Johnson by Carl Van Vechten 1944./From Generations in Black and White Photographs by Carl Van Vechten from the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection(PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE CREDITS FROM THIS RARE PHOTO, THANK YOU)

James Weldon Johnson | God's trombones

Here’s what makes the Black National Anthem so iconic

With his poetry and prose, this African-American writer left his mark on American literature.

One of hundreds of thousands of free digital items from The New York Public Library.

When we think of great African American historic sites in New York, we typically think of Harlem’s Apollo Theater, Lower Manhattan’s African Burial Ground, or Brooklyn’s Weeksville Houses. But one building that should perhaps join the list is 70 Fifth Avenue in Greenwich Village, which housed the headquarters of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest and largest