Book Description
This selection of more than forty poems from a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance includes both uncompromising indictments of racial injustice and celebrations of the triumphs of African-Americans.
With a Preface by Sondra Kathryn Wilson
"[Johnson's poetry] is an exhortation to loose the bonds of dreary second-class citizenship and humiliating segregation and devastating racism. The lyrics bid the reader to be free, to walk with gratitude over ground red with the blood of our ancestors; encourages us to be free to bid the day good morning with hopeful heart, to adore the Creator with gladsome hearts for the battles won and to ask of that same Creator for strength for the battles yet to come. James Weldon Johnson aptly, deeply, with love and humor and a powerful rhyming tongue, has told our story and sung our song."-- Maya Angelou
With a Preface by Sondra Kathryn Wilson
"[Johnson's poetry] is an exhortation to loose the bonds of dreary second-class citizenship and humiliating segregation and devastating racism. The lyrics bid the reader to be free, to walk with gratitude over ground red with the blood of our ancestors; encourages us to be free to bid the day good morning with hopeful heart, to adore the Creator with gladsome hearts for the battles won and to ask of that same Creator for strength for the battles yet to come. James Weldon Johnson aptly, deeply, with love and humor and a powerful rhyming tongue, has told our story and sung our song."-- Maya Angelou
About the author
James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) was a major figure in the creation and development of African-American literature and culture. Born to a middle-class family in Jacksonville, Florida, Johnson was a renaissance man: a poet, songwriter, essayist, and novelist, as well as the first African-American lawyer admitted to the Florida bar. His books include God's Trombones and The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.
Sondra Kathryn Wilson is a senior researcher at Harvard's W. E. B. DuBois Institute.
Sondra Kathryn Wilson is a senior researcher at Harvard's W. E. B. DuBois Institute.
