Educated at Atlanta University, Johnson received his degree in 1894. He then took the position of principal of Stanton school in Jacksonville. In 1897, he was admitted to the bar, the first African-American to do so in Florida. In 1899, he temporarily located to New York City with his brother, John Rosamond Johnson, where they collaborated on musical theatre. Returning to Florida, Johnson spent another two years as principal before resigning in 1902 to move permanently to New York. Together with his brother and songwriter Bob Cole, the trio enjoyed a great deal of success, but Johnson was more interested in literary pursuits. He took graduate courses at Columbia University and in 1906 was named consul to Puerto Cabella, Venezuela. In 1909, he was moved to Nicaragua, where he was married. In 1912, he published The Autobiography of An Ex-Colored Man, a novel in spite of the title, which enjoyed a reasonable amount of success. In 1913, he resigned his diplomatic post and returned to the U.S. where he worked as an editor for New York Age. His first collection of poetry, Fifty Years and Other Poems, appeared in 1917 to much critical acclaim. In 1920, he became the general secretary of the NAACP and dedicated much of his time over the next decade to furthering its cause. In 1933, he published his true autobiography, Along This Way. He was killed when his car was hit by a train near his summer home in Maine. His other works include The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922), The Book of American Negro Spirituals (1925), God's Trombone: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927), Black Manhattan (1930) and Negro Americans, What Now? (1934). |
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