The Book Of American Negro Poetry
   HOME
*





The Book Of American Negro Poetry
''The Book of American Negro Poetry'' is a 1922 poetry anthology that was compiled by James Weldon Johnson. The first edition, published in 1922, was "the first of its kind ever published" and included the works of thirty-one poets. A second edition was released in 1931 with works by nine additional poets. Background The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American life centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. A major aspect of this revival was poetry. Hundreds of poems were written and published by African Americans during the era, which covered a wide variety of themes. The Poetry Foundation wrote that poets in the Harlem Renaissance "explored the beauty and pain of black life and sought to define themselves and their community outside of white stereotypes." Poets such as Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, and Countee Cullen became well known for their poetry, which was often inspired by jazz. The poetry ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

James Weldon Johnson
James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871June 26, 1938) was an American writer 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 established his reputation as a writer, and was known during the Harlem Renaissance for his poems, novel, and anthologies collecting both poems and spirituals of black culture. He wrote the lyrics for "Lift Every Voice and Sing", which later became known as the Negro National Anthem, the music being written by his younger brother, composer J. Rosamond Johnson. Johnson was appointed under President Theodore Roosevelt as U.S. consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua for most of the period from 1906 to 1913. In 1934, h ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

James Edwin Campbell (poet)
James Edwin Campbell (September 28, 1867January 26, 1896) was an American educator, school administrator, newspaper editor, poet, and essayist. Campbell was the first principal of the West Virginia Colored Institute (present-day West Virginia State University) from 1892 until 1894, and is considered by the university as its first president. Campbell was born in 1867 in Pomeroy, Ohio, where he completed his secondary education at Pomeroy Academy in 1884. His first job was as a teacher in Buck Ridge, Ohio, for two years. He relocated to West Virginia, where he served as the editor of ''The Pioneer'' and ''West Virginia Enterprise'' newspapers. He was the principal of the Point Pleasant Colored School (later known as Langston Academy) from 1891 until 1892. In 1892, he was selected as the first principal of the West Virginia Colored Institute, serving until 1894. He was awarded an honorary Bachelor of Philosophy degree from Shaw University in 1893. From an early age, Campbell exhib ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Jessie Redmon Fauset
Jessie Redmon Fauset (April 27, 1882 – April 30, 1961) was an African-American editor, poet, essayist, novelist, and educator. Her literary work helped sculpt African-American literature in the 1920s as she focused on portraying a true image of African-American life and history. Her black fictional characters were working professionals which was an inconceivable concept to American society during this time Her story lines related to themes of racial discrimination, "passing", and feminism. From 1919 to 1926, Fauset's position as literary editor of ''The Crisis'', a NAACP magazine, allowed her to contribute to the Harlem Renaissance by promoting literary work that related to the social movements of this era. Through her work as a literary editor and reviewer, she encouraged black writers to represent the African-American community realistically and positively. Before and after working on ''The Crisis,'' she worked for decades as a French teacher in public schools in Washingto ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Joseph Seamon Cotter Sr
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic countries. In Portuguese and Spanish, the name is "José". In Arabic, including in the Quran, the name is spelled ''Yūsuf''. In Persian, the name is "Yousef". The name has enjoyed significant popularity in its many forms in numerous countries, and ''Joseph'' was one of the two names, along with ''Robert'', to have remained in the top 10 boys' names list in the US from 1925 to 1972. It is especially common in contemporary Israel, as either "Yossi" or "Yossef", and in Italy, where the name "Giuseppe" was the most common male name in the 20th century. In the first century CE, Joseph was the second most popular male name for Palestine Jews. In the Book of Genesis Joseph is Jacob's eleventh son and Rachel's first son, and ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Claude McKay
Festus Claudius "Claude" McKay OJ (September 15, 1890See Wayne F. Cooper, ''Claude McKay, Rebel Sojourner In The Harlem Renaissance (New York, Schocken, 1987) p. 377 n. 19. As Cooper's authoritative biography explains, McKay's family predated his birth a year to make him eligible to be a student teaching assistant at his eldest brother's school, a fact McKay only learned from his sister Rachel in 1920 -- leading some sources to erroneously date his birth to 1889. – May 22, 1948) was a Jamaican-American writer and poet. He was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Jamaica, McKay first travelled to the United States to attend college, and encountered W. E. B. Du Bois's ''The Souls of Black Folk'' which stimulated McKay's interest in political involvement. He moved to New York City in 1914 and in 1919 he wrote " If We Must Die", one of his best known works, a widely reprinted sonnet responding to the wave of white-on-black race riots and lynchings following the c ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Georgia Douglas Johnson
Georgia Blanche Douglas Camp Johnson, better known as Georgia Douglas Johnson (September 10, 1880 – May 15, 1966), was a poet. She was one of the earliest female African-American playwrights, and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Early life She was born as Georgia Blanche Douglas Camp in 1880 in Atlanta, Georgia, to Laura Douglas and George CampAtkins, Alyssa, Theresa Crushshon and Chanida Phaengdara"Voices from the Gaps: Georgia Douglas Johnson." University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy, December 15, 2015. Retrieved April 17, 2017. (her mother's last name is listed in other sources as Jackson).Palumbo, Carmine D"Georgia Johnson."''New Georgia Encyclopedia'', September 17, 2003. Retrieved October 7, 2013.Lewis, Jone Johnson"Georgia Douglas Johnson: Harlem Renaissance Writer."''Thoughtco'', January 7, 2015. Retrieved April 17, 2017. Both parents were of mixed ancestry, with her mother having African-American and Native American heritage, and her father of Afri ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Robert Nathaniel Dett
Robert Nathaniel Dett (October 11, 1882 – October 2, 1943), often known as R. Nathaniel Dett and Nathaniel Dett, was a Black Canadian-American composer, organist, pianist, choral director, and music professor. Born and raised in Canada until the age of 11, he moved to the United States with his family and had most of his professional education and career there. During his lifetime he was a leading Black composer, known for his use of African-American folk songs and spirituals as the basis for choral and piano compositions in the 19th century Romantic style of Classical music. He was among the first Black composers during the early years after the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) was organized. His works often appeared among the programs of Will Marion Cook's New York Syncopated Orchestra. Dett performed at Carnegie Hall and at the Boston Symphony Hall as a pianist and choir director. Early life Dett was born in 1882 in Drummondville, Ontario (no ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Fenton Johnson (poet)
Fenton Johnson (May 7, 1888 – September 17, 1958) was an American poet, essayist, author of short stories, editor, and educator. Johnson came from a middle-class African-American family in Chicago, where he spent most of his career. His work is often included in anthologies of 20th-century poetry, and he is noted for early prose poetry. Author James Weldon Johnson (no relation) called Fenton, "one of the first Negro revolutionary poets”. He is also considered a forerunner of the Harlem Renaissance. Early life and career Johnson was born on May 7, 1888, in Chicago, Illinois, to parents Elijah and Jesse (Taylor) Johnson. His father, Elijah Johnson, was a railroad porter and their African-American family was comparatively well-off. His family owned the State Street building in which they lived, and according to a biographical note by Arna Bontemps, Fenton Johnson was described as being "a dapper boy who drove his own electric automobile around Chicago." Growing up, Johnso ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Edward Smyth Jones
Edward Smyth Jones (March 1881 – 28 September 1968) was an African-American poet. Life Edward Smyth (sometimes spelled Smythe) Jones was born to former enslaved parents Hawk and Rebecca in Natchez, Mississippi in 1881. He attended Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Alcorn State University) for 14 months in 1902–1903, and then later moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where he published his first book of thirty poems, ''The Rose that Bloometh in My Heart'' in 1908. Jones had a lifelong desire for education, and particularly wanted to study at Harvard University. Having left Louisville for Indianapolis, Jones set out on foot (and occasionally hopping freight trains) in the summer of 1910 for Cambridge, Massachusetts. "Arriving travel-worn, friendless, moneyless, hungry, he was preparing to bivouac on the Harvard campus his first night in the University city, when, being misunderstood, and not believed, he was apprehended as a vagabond and thrown into jail." While sitting ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Leslie Pinckney Hill
Leslie Pinckney Hill (14 May 1880 – 15 February 1960) was an American educator, writer, and community leader. From 1913 to 1951, he served as principal of the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia and oversaw the institution's move to Cheyney, Pennsylvania, and its establishment as Cheyney State Teachers College. He also served as the college's first president. Life and career The son of a former slave, Hill was born in Lynchburg, Virginia. He attended primary school locally, and played the trumpet. His family moved to East Orange, New Jersey, where he attended high school. Excelling at his studies, he skipped his junior year, and was accepted to Harvard University his senior year. He entered Harvard in 1899, supplementing his scholarship by working as a waiter. There he attended the classes of William James and was active in debating. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated with honors in 1903. He stayed at Harvard another year for a master's degree in education ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

George Reginald Margetson
George Reginald Margetson (1877 - c.1952) was a stationary engineer and poet. He was born in St. Kitts, British West Indies. He moved to the United States in 1897 and resided in Boston. He graduated from Bethel Moravian School in 1895. He married Elizabeth Matthews and had "a large family." He lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, .... His book ''Fledging Bard and the Poetry Society'' is a single poem covering 100 pages. His work includes satire. He died around 1952. Publishings *''England in the West Indies; a neglected and degenerating empire'' Cambridge, Massachusetts (1906) *''Ethiopia’s Flight: The Negro Question; Or, The White Man’s Fear'' (1907) *''Songs of Life'' collection (Sherman, French & Company, 1910) *''The Call to ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




William Stanley Braithwaite
William Stanley Beaumont Braithwaite (December 6, 1878 – June 8, 1962) was an African-American writer, poet, literary critic, anthologist, and publisher. His work as a critic and anthologist was widely praised and important in the development of East Coast poetry styles in the early 20th century. Personal life Braithwaite was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1878. According to Jill Lepore, his father "came from a wealthy British Guiana family; his mother was the daughter of a North Carolina slave." His father preferred that the children be educated at home, and until his untimely death, they were raised in a genteel household of means. Braithwaite married Emma Kelly in 1903; they had seven children. He died at his home at 409 Edgecombe Avenue home in Harlem after a brief illness on June 8, 1962. Career At the age of 12, upon the death of his father, Braithwaite was forced to quit school to support his family. When he was aged 15 he was apprenticed to a typesetter for the Bost ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]