James Weldon Johnson was a reputed American author, diplomat, songwriter and civil rights activist. His notable works include treatise such as ‘Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing’, ‘God’s Trombones’, ‘Along This Way’ and ‘The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man’. This legendary author was also the spearhead of the ‘National Association’ for the ‘Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)’. He was the first African-American to be elected as the secretary of the organization. Under the rule of President Theodore Roosevelt, he worked as a U.S consul in Nicaragua and Venezuela. He was also the first Black professor to work at the New York University. He continued to share his vast knowledge at the Fisk University as a lecturer of creative literature and writing. He received honorary doctorates from prestigious institutes such as Atlanta University, Talladega College and Howard University. Additionally, he received honors of ‘Harmon Gold Award’, ‘Spingarn Medal’ and ‘W.E.B. Du Bois Prize’ for Negro Literature. Here are some of the most intriguing quotes from this legendary African-American author that will give you a glimpse of his mind. Following are the most frequently quoted quotes and thoughts by James Weldon Johnson which have been excerpted from the vast sea of his work and life.
In Berlin I especially enjoyed the orchestral concerts, and I attended a large number of them. I formed the acquaintance of a good many musicians, several of whom spoke of my playing in high terms.
I do not see how a people that can find in its conscience any excuse whatever for slowly burning to death a human being, or for tolerating such an act, can be entrusted with the salvation of a race.
The Southern whites are in many respects a great people. Looked at from a certain point of view, they are picturesque. If one will put oneself in a romantic frame of mind, one can admire their notions of chivalry and bravery and justice.
It is a struggle; for though the black man fights passively, he nevertheless fights; and his passive resistance is more effective at present than active resistance could possibly be. He bears the fury of the storm as does the willow tree.
James Weldon Johnson
As yet, the Negroes themselves do not fully appreciate these old slave songs.
James Weldon Johnson
Through my music teaching and my not absolutely irregular attendance at church, I became acquainted with the best class of colored people in Jacksonville.
Northern white people love the Negro in a sort of abstract way, as a race; through a sense of justice, charity, and philanthropy, they will liberally assist in his elevation.
My mother was kept very busy with her sewing; sometimes she would have another woman helping her.
James Weldon Johnson
Labor is the fabled magician's wand, the philosophers stone, and the cap of good fortune.
James Weldon Johnson
When we arrived in London, my sadness at leaving Paris was turned into despair. After my long stay in the French capital, huge, ponderous, massive London seemed to me as ugly a thing as man could contrive to make.
Washington shows the Negro not only at his best, but also at his worst.
James Weldon Johnson
The battle was first waged over the right of the Negro to be classed as a human being with a soul; later, as to whether he had sufficient intellect to master even the rudiments of learning; and today it is being fought out over his social recognition.
James Weldon Johnson
Amsterdam was a great surprise to me. I had always thought of Venice as the city of canals; it had never entered my mind that I should find similar conditions in a Dutch town.
The peculiar fascination which the South held over my imagination and my limited capital decided me in favor of Atlanta University; so about the last of September I bade farewell to the friends and scenes of my boyhood and boarded a train for the South.
Southern white people despise the Negro as a race, and will do nothing to aid in his elevation as such; but for certain individuals they have a strong affection, and are helpful to them in many ways.
Shortly after this I was made a member of the boys' choir, it being found that I possessed a clear, strong soprano voice. I enjoyed the singing very much.
My luck at the gambling table was varied; sometimes I was fifty to a hundred dollars ahead, and at other times I had to borrow money from my fellow workmen to settle my room rent and pay for my meals.
My appearance was always good and my ability to play on the piano, especially ragtime, which was then at the height of its vogue, made me a welcome guest.
But I must own that I also felt stirred by an unselfish desire to voice all the joys and sorrows, the hopes and ambitions, of the American Negro, in classic musical form.
Americans are immensely popular in Paris; and this is not due solely to the fact that they spend lots of money there, for they spend just as much or more in London, and in the latter city they are merely tolerated because they do spend.
James Weldon Johnson
It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives its most distinctive character.
It is strange how in some things honest people can be dishonest without the slightest compunction.
James Weldon Johnson
It’s no disgrace to be black, but it’s often very inconvenient.
James Weldon Johnson
I believe it to be a fact that the colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them.
Every race and every nation should be judged by the best it has been able to produce, not by the worst.
James Weldon Johnson
Any musical person who has never heard a Negro congregation under the spell of religious fervor sing these old songs has missed one of the most thrilling emotions which the human heart may experience.
For days I could talk of nothing else with my mother except my ambitions to be a great man, a great colored man, to reflect credit on the race and gain fame for myself.
