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Novels & StoriesThe Autobiography of an Ex-Colored ManJames Weldon JohnsonThe Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

James Weldon Johnson

Novels & StoriesEnglish
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The unnamed narrator, son of a white Southern gentleman and a Black mother, grows up in Connecticut believing he is white, until a day at school reveals that…

Catalogue details

Author
James Weldon Johnson
Category
Novels & Stories
Language
English
Source
Project Gutenberg

About this book

The unnamed narrator, son of a white Southern gentleman and a Black mother, grows up in Connecticut believing he is white, until a day at school reveals that the world counts him as Black. A gifted pianist, he works in a cigar factory in Florida, plays ragtime in New York clubs and tours Europe with a rich patron, dreaming of composing music from Black folk songs. After witnessing a lynching in the South, he decides to 'pass' as a white man, and wonders what he has sold.

Context and significance

James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938), a writer, diplomat, civil rights leader and author of the song 'Lift Every Voice and Sing', published the novel anonymously in 1912, and many readers took it for a real memoir. It is a landmark of African American literature. Compare Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk.

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