詹姆斯·韦尔登·约翰逊

詹姆斯·韦尔登·约翰逊（James Weldon Johnson 1871年6月17日—1938年6月26日）是一名美国作家、民权运动家，美国全国有色人种协进会领袖、哈莱姆文艺复兴重要成员。1934年，他成为纽约大学的第一位非洲裔美国人教授，后来也曾在费斯克大学执教。

James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938) was an African American author, politician, diplomat, critic, journalist, poet, anthologist, educator, lawyer, songwriter and early civil rights activist. He was married to civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson.

Johnson was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where he started working in 1917. In 1920, he was chosen as executive secretary of the organization, effectively the operating officer. He served in that position from 1920 to 1930.

Johnson established his reputation as a writer through his poems and anthologies of the poetry and spirituals of Black culture. He wrote the lyrics for "Lift Every Voice and Sing", which later became known as the Black National Anthem, the music being written by his younger brother, composer J. Rosamond Johnson.

In 1934, he was the first African American professor to be hired at New York University. Later in life, he was a professor of creative literature and writing at Fisk University, a historically Black university. In recognition of his scholarship and impact, New York University established the James Weldon Johnson Professorship in 2020.

Early life and education

Johnson was born in 1871 in Jacksonville, Florida, the son of James Johnson, a biracial preacher and headwaiter at the St. James Hotel, a luxury establishment built when Jacksonville was one of Florida's first winter resort destinations, and Helen Louise Dillet, a musician and the first African American female teacher in Florida.

Johnson's father was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1829 and his mother was an emigre from the Bahamas. His maternal great-grandmother, Hester Argo, had escaped from Saint-Domingue (today Haiti) during the revolutionary upheaval in 1802, along with her three young children, including James' grandfather Stephen Dillet (1797–1880). Although originally headed to Cuba, their boat was intercepted by privateers and they were taken to Nassau, where they settled permanently. In 1833, Stephen Dillet became the first man of color to win election to the Bahamian legislature.

The achievements of his father inspired young James to pursue a professional career. James and his brother John Rosamond Johnson were first educated by their mother before attending Edwin Stanton School, where their mother taught. She encouraged both her children to study English literature and the European musical tradition.

After completing the eighth grade at the Stanton School he entered the preparatory school and later the college division of Atlanta University (now, Clark Atlanta University), the first historically Black university ("HBCU") to confer graduate degrees to African Americans. Molded by the classical education for which Atlanta University was known, Johnson regarded his academic training as a trust and knew he was expected to devote himself to helping Black people advance. While attending Atlanta University, Johnson became known as an influential campus speaker, winning the Quiz Club Contest in English Composition and Oratory in 1892.

In the summer of 1891, following his freshman year at Atlanta University, Johnson went to a rural district in Georgia to teach the descendants of former slaves. "In all of my experience there has been no period so brief that has meant so much in my education for life as the three months I spent in the backwoods of Georgia," Johnson wrote. "I was thrown for the first time on my own resources and abilities."

Johnson graduated from Atlanta University with a Bachelor's degree, with honors, in 1894. After graduation, Johnson returned to Jacksonville, where he became Principal of the Stanton School. Paid less than half what white colleagues earned in separate white schools, Johnson added the ninth and tenth grades to the school to extend the years of schooling. He later resigned from this job to pursue other goals.