The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson

This is a Negro man's narrative. It's about his desire to succeed in a society where the color of the skin is more important than honesty or any other character value of life. As he journeys through life from the North to the South in the United States, he faces a hard dilemma. Should he choose to help his Negro brother fight a struggle to prove himself human and intelligent, or should he fight only for himself by making money, owning power and societal connections? He can always say the choice was made for the good of his family. When he sees a man burnt alive, he changes his name and grows a mustache. Then, he goes back to New York. to make his living. The autobiography is brilliantly put together whether you choose to despise this man or choose to believe he was what he was, a flawed man who made decisions that seemed right at the time for him. In the end, it's a whole society being examined on the glass slide under the microscope and not the life of just one man.
However, once a major decision is made about life it becomes a part of man. He must battle in the darkness. Did I do it right, or did I do it wrong? That is the question that haunts James Weldon Johnson until the end.


To America

James Weldon Johnson, 1871 - 1928
How would you have us, as we are?
Or sinking ‘neath the load we bear?
Our eyes fixed forward on a star?
Or gazing empty at despair?

Rising or falling? Men or things?
With dragging pace or footsteps fleet?
Strong, willing sinews in your wings?
Or tightening chains about your feet? http://www.poets.org

biography.com/people/james-weldon-johnson

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