James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938) was an American author, politician, diplomat, critic, journalist, poet, anthologist, educator, lawyer, songwriter, and early civil rights activist. Johnson is remembered best for his leadership within the NAACP, as well as for his writing, which includes novels, poems, and collections of folklore. He was also one of the first African-American professors at New York University. Later in life he was a professor of creative literature and writing at Fisk University.
Read more about James Weldon Johnson: Life, Education and Law, Diplomacy, Literature and Anthology, Poetry, Activism, Awards, Honors, and Legacy
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“This Great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till He shaped it in His own image;”
—James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938)
“And God stepped out on space,
And He looked around and said,
“I’m lonely—
I’ll make me a world.””
—James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938)
“Essential truth, the truth of the intellectualists, the truth with no one thinking it, is like the coat that fits tho no one has ever tried it on, like the music that no ear has listened to. It is less real, not more real, than the verified article; and to attribute a superior degree of glory to it seems little more than a piece of perverse abstraction-worship.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“We shelter children for a time; we live side by side with men; and that is all. We owe them nothing, and are owed nothing. I think we owe our friends more, especially our female friends.”
—Fay Weldon (b. 1933)
“That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)