James Weldon Johnson
Born: June 17, 1871
Died: June 26, 1938
Biography
James Weldon Johnson was an American writer and civil rights activist. Johnson was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where he started working in 1917. A key figure of the Harlem Renaissance, James Weldon Johnson was a man of many talents. Not only was he a distinguished lawyer and diplomat who served as the executive secretary of the NAACP for a decade, but he was also a composer who wrote the lyrics for "Lift Every Voice and Sing," known as the Black national anthem.
