Fifty Years and Other Poems - Johnson, James Weldon
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Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917) is a collection of poems by James Weldon Johnson. Although less popular than his book God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927), Johnson's second poetry collection showcases his talents as a rising star of African American literature. Including some poems that would be featured in The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922), an influential anthology compiled and edited by the poet himself, Fifty Years and Other Poems remains essential to Johnson's legacy as a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance. "Fifty Years" opens the collection with an ode to…mehr

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Produktbeschreibung
Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917) is a collection of poems by James Weldon Johnson. Although less popular than his book God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927), Johnson's second poetry collection showcases his talents as a rising star of African American literature. Including some poems that would be featured in The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922), an influential anthology compiled and edited by the poet himself, Fifty Years and Other Poems remains essential to Johnson's legacy as a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance. "Fifty Years" opens the collection with an ode to emancipation, a starting point from which millions of men, women, and children were given the opportunity, however fragile it was, to pursue better lives. Rather than give thanks for freedom granted, however, Johnson implores his fellow Black Americans to remain proud, assured that liberty is their hard-earned right: "This land is ours by right of birth, / This land is ours by right of toil; / We helped to turn its virgin earth, / Our sweat is in its fruitful soil." Hopeful and resilient, Johnson reflects on his own place in this history of struggle, paying particular heed to his status as a poet, his ability to sing despite centuries of violent oppression. In his poem "O Black and Unknown Bards," he asks "O black and unknown bards of long ago, / How came your lips to touch the sacred fire?" Recognizing the need for a reconciliation between the long tradition of black culture and the overwhelming erasure of his own contemporary artists, Johnson highlights the efforts of those poets such as himself, who "Within [their] dark-kept soul[s], burst into song." Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book. With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.
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Autorenporträt
James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 - June 26, 1938) was an American author and 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 the first African American to be chosen as executive secretary of the organization, effectively the operating officer. He served in that position from 1920 to 1930. Johnson rose to become one of the most successful officials in the organization. He traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, for example, to investigate a brutal lynching that was witnessed by thousands. His report on the carnival-like atmosphere surrounding the burning-to-death of Ell Persons was published nationally as a supplement to the July 1917 issue of the NAACP's Crisis magazine, and during his visit there he chartered the Memphis chapter of the NAACP. Johnson established his reputation as a writer, and was known during the Harlem Renaissance for his poems, novels, and anthologies collecting both poems and spirituals of black culture. He was appointed under President Theodore Roosevelt as US consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua for most of the period from 1906 to 1913. 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. Johnson died in 1938 while vacationing in Wiscasset, Maine, when the car his wife was driving was hit by a train. His funeral in Harlem was attended by more than 2000 people. Johnson's ashes are interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.