James Johnson

James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) was an American author, poet, civil rights activist, and leader of the Harlem Renaissance, best known for his novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912), poetry collection God's Trombones (1927), and the lyrics to "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," known as the Black National Anthem. He edited landmark anthologies like The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922), served as the NAACP's first executive secretary (1920–1930), received the Spingarn Medal in 1925, and was the first African American to pass the Florida bar exam since Reconstruction. NAACP, Emory University