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Autobiography Of An Ex-Colored Man By James Weldon Johnson

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In the novel, Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, writer James Weldon Johnson explores what life was like for a particularly privileged light skinned African American man at the end of the 19th century. Through the novel, he outlines a phenomenon called “cultural tourism”; in which describes a person of one culture who travels through another culture without really having the true experience of it. A cultural tourist engages in another culture’s history, language, art, music, even superstitions, all while posing as a clandestine member of that same culture. By examining the case of a “white” person touring and absorbing black culture; there is an identity crisis of the unnamed narrator that through a series of events; places him in a position …show more content…

After the events of the Civil War, White Americans were left confused as to how to integrate newly freed black slaves into a new American society. It was not just a problem for the U.S. South, who had lost the Civil War and was undergoing reconstruction of their whole culture and economy. The victorious northern states also had its biases against recently emancipated African Americans. A culture of segregation emerged along with the inherent challenges of its impact on American Society. Various authors at the time, attempted to explore (using different perspectives), the future of America and the impact of a newly demographic populace in the U.S. Many authors delved into the foray by documenting the confusion and dialogue of the decades following the Civil War, including James Weldon Johnson. He was one of the most prominent African American figures at the time and helped bolster the Harlem Renaissance in New York. He was an accomplished “educator, journalist, political activist, diplomat, creative writer, literary critic, musician, and composer” (Washington, 234). The life experiences of Johnson are sometimes paralleled to that of the unnamed narrator in Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. However, Johnson was a much more active part of American society. Through his writing, it is obvious that Johnson is aware of the different roles in society of each class and sector of the African American community. Utilizing his own comprehension, Johnson wants readers to think critically about the thoughts and actions of his

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James Weldon Johnson was a civil rights activist, writer, diplomat, educator, songwriter, and many other things, but most importantly he was one of the leaders who aided in the development and creation of the Harlem Renaissance which is why he contributed to African American literary thought and activism. Although Johnson had many titles and he was known as many things he has to start somewhere. After he graduated from Atlanta University he founded the newspaper, The Daily American, in 1895, where he gave information to the people of the black community on political and racial topics during a time when African Americans were oppressed. Though the newspaper only lasted a year before it fell victim to financial issues, it addressed issues such as racial injustice, and it spoke on the philosophies of Booker T. Washington.

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More specifically, he argues that the common goals freed slaves faced between 1830 and 1860—racial animus and Southern planters’ resistance— resurfaced again in the early 1900s. The planter class used their financial and political wherewithal to subjugate black laborers in a state of perpetual servitude—ex. sharecropping. “Keep the Negroes in the South and make them satisfied with their lot.” In response, the Negro Rural School Fund employed industrial supervisors to teach black educators. James Anderson also recounts the urbanization of the South and its impact upon the public education landscape. He sheds light upon the absence of black high schools in rural areas in the years following Reconstruction.

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African-American historian W.E.B Dubois illustrated how the Civil War brought the problems of African-American experiences into the spotlight. As a socialist, he argued against the traditional Dunning interpretations and voiced opinions about the failures and benefits of the Civil War era, which he branded as a ‘splendid failure’. The impacts of Civil War era enabled African-Americans to “form their own fraternal organizations, worship in their own churches and embrace the notion of an activist government that promoted and safeguarded the welfare of its citizens.”

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Andrew Costly discusses the Southern “Black Codes” of 1865-1866 that came after the Civil War ended slavery in America. Costly discusses how Congress created the Freedman’s Bureau that tried to help to make sure former slaves were being treated and paid well by their employers. Costly also discusses the South Carolina Black Code and how it only applied to “persons of color”; the codes included labor contracts, civil rights, vagrancy, and other restrictions. Andrew Costly tells about the how the northern protesting the Black Codes because they felt as if

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In the preface of Lawrence Levine’s Black Culture and Black Consciousness, he establishes two endeavors that his text was intended to accomplish. The first of these was to accurately analyze the history of the general African American population from the antebellum period to the 1940’s. It was Levine’s hope to “write a history of thought of a people who have been too largely neglected and too consistently misunderstood”(xxvii). It was his goal to give a perspective on the history of African Americans that was closer to the truth than those that are most often portrayed by historians. Lawrence Levine also introduces in his preface the idea that historians are often limited by their bias towards sources that are easily acquired and have been

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“Art vs. Trade” Broken Down James Weldon Johnson, the poet of “Art vs. Trade”, organized the NAACP and was a leader the Harlem Renaissance (“James”). The Harlem Renaissance was a black cultural movement in the twenties that started in Harlem, New York City (“Harlem”). As an African American poet during the Harlem Renaissance, James Weldon Johnson had a deep hatred for segregation which he was talented enough to display with words. Johnson wrote the poem “Art vs. Trade” to appeal to many different types of people in order for the Harlem Renaissance movement to rise. Also, Johnson was born and grew up in Jacksonville, Florida in the 1870s and ‘80s (“James”).

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With the passing of Black Codes, black southerners experienced more oppression since their emancipation from slavery. In order to give them equal rights, Congress passed a Civil Rights Act to outlaw the prejudicial laws. However, President Johnson vetoed the act to maintain white supremacy, although Congress disregarded his word and overrode the action. This action exemplifies Johnson’s priorities of keeping black people as subservient as possible, specifically in the

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Carter G Woodson is amongst many well known African Americans in History. Woodson was an African American writer and historian known as “ The Father of Black history month”. He dedicated himself to the field of African-American history, working to make sure that the subject was taught in schools and studied by scholars. He was the author of more than thirty books, his best known book was The Miseducation of the negro, published in 1933 and is still relevant today. He also founded the Association for the study of African American Life and History, the mission was to promote, research, and share information about Black life, history and culture to the global community.

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The year is 1865, the Civil War has concluded, slaves are now declared “free”, Lincoln is killed, and our nation continues to disband itself further and further. What was the nation’s response towards the situation? To create a program in which the U.S. would rebuild society and manage to eliminate conflicts within the government, the wealth of the nation, the relations between groups, and land. Reconstruction’s purpose was to bring the North and the South back, as one nation, but all that was accomplished were disputes, both opinionated or political, therefore; Reconstruction was unsuccess. Part of the reason behind the failure called the Reconstruction is Johnson’s focus on healing the nation rather than the justice.

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“It [the Harlem Renaissance] was a time of black individualism, a time marked by a vast array of characters whose uniqueness challenged the traditional inability of white Americans to differentiate between blacks.” (Clement Alexander Price). Price’s mentality describes the tradition of American society persecuting African Americans. This reference to tradition forces the audience to consider how this persecution began. African Americans were abducted and forced into slavery.

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