Johnson, a Republican, campaigned on behalf
of Theodore Roosevelt. Thanks to endorsements
by BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, Johnson was re-
warded for his efforts with diplomatic appoint-
ments as consul to Venezuela and to Nicaragua. In
1904 he was one of several party members who es-
tablished the Colored Republican Club in New
York City.
He married Grace Nail in 1910. Nail was a na-
tive New Yorker and 15 years Johnson’s junior. The
couple, who had no children, enjoyed a happy and
supportive relationship until the tragic car acci-
dent in Wicasset, Maine, that claimed Johnson’s
life in the summer of 1938.
Johnson began his noteworthy 14-year relation-
ship with the NATIONALASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OFCOLOREDPEOPLE(NAACP) in
- Appointed field secretary, he traveled
throughout the country establishing branches and
strengthening the organization’s national and re-
gional networks. One of his major accomplishments
was in increasing the number of NAACP chapters
in the South from a mere three outposts to 131 ac-
tive branches. Johnson’s international and political
profile also resulted in opportunities to research U.S.
military operations and tragic massacres in HAITI.
Johnson also was active in the NAACP campaign to
establish federal antilynching legislation. In 1920 he
became the first African-American executive direc-
tor of the organization. Johnson retired from the or-
ganization in 1930.
Before and during his tenure with the NAACP,
Johnson published highly regarded anthologies and
a novel. These included AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN
EX-COLOUREDMAN(1912, 1927), which he wrote
while serving as consul in Venezuela, THEBOOK OF
AMERICANNEGROPOETRY(1922), and two vol-
umes of African-American spirituals that appeared
in 1925 and 1926. Johnson continued to hone his
skills as a poet and to explore his deep love of black
folk life and culture. In 1927 he published GOD’S
TROMBONES:SEVENNEGROSERMONS INVERSE,
one of his most celebrated works. This book was in-
spired by the sermons that Johnson had heard dur-
ing his Florida childhood and the preaching that he
had encountered later in New York. His agnosticism
did not prevent him from working to preserve a vital
aspect of American religious life. Johnson, who be-
lieved that the “old-time Negro preacher is rapidly
passing,” endeavored to “fix something of him” in
his poetic tribute.
When he resigned from the NAACP in 1930,
Johnson dedicated himself wholeheartedly to teach-
ing and publishing. A JULIUSROSENWALDFELLOW-
SHIPwinner in 1930, he used his funds to complete
Black Manhattan,the first African-American history
of African Americans in New York. Johnson, who
dedicated the work to John Nail, noted that his
goal was “only to etch in the background of the
Negro in latter-day New York, to give a cut-back in
projecting a picture of Negro Harlem.” He also
published SAINTPETERRELATES ANINCIDENT OF
THERESURRECTIONDAY(1930), a lengthy satiric
poem that tackled race prejudice and illuminated
its uselessness. He published ALONGTHISWAY,his
autobiography, in 1933.
Johnson joined the faculty at FISKUNIVERSITY
in 1932. He held an endowed professorship, the
Adam K. Spence Chair of Creative Literature, and
taught writing classes. Soon afterward, he had the
opportunity to become a visiting professor at New
York University and accepted.
His close friends included CARL VAN
VECHTEN, the novelist and prominent society fig-
ure. Van Vechten, who wrote one of the early re-
views of Johnson’s BOOK OF AMERICANNEGRO
SPIRITUALS,cherished Johnson, whom he found to
be “kind, gentle, helpful, generous, tolerant of un-
orthodox behaviour in others, patriarchal in offer-
ing good advice, understanding in not expecting it
to be followed, moderate in his ways of living, and
courageous in accepting the difficulties of life”
(Kellner, 203). Johnson worked closely with W. E.
B. DUBOIS, a fellow pioneering NAACP member
and editor of THECRISIS,the organization’s official
publication.
Johnson’s many honors included honorary de-
grees from Atlanta University, Talladega College,
and HOWARDUNIVERSITY. He was the 11th per-
son to win a prestigious SPINGARNMEDAL, the
highest award given by the NAACP. Johnson de-
voted his life to eradicating deadly misperceptions
of African Americans and to sustaining resilient,
inspiring, and multifaceted African-American liter-
ary, political, and cultural histories. He firmly be-
lieved that African-American life was affected
more by the “national mental attitude toward the
race than [by] actual conditions.” He used his in-290 Johnson, James Weldon