Additional Resources

Biography & History

• African American Literature Book Club
  Aalb.Com offers information on books by or about Johnson currently in print as well as additional information about the author.

• Harlem, 1900-1940
  This exhibition by the University of Michigan includes a page on Johnson that offers useful information on the historical and cultural contexts in which he wrote.

• James Weldon Johnson
  The Smithsonian Institute's National Portrait Gallery provides information about Johnson as well as Laura Wheeler Warning's 1943 oil on canvas painting of the author.

• Jazz Roots
  Jass.com provides information about Cole & Johnson Brothers, the partnership of James Weldon Johnson with his brother John Rosamond Johnson and Bob Cole that would prove to be one of the most influential forces in early twentieth-century jazz.

• Survey Graphic (March 1925)
  The Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia presents the March 1925 issue of Survey Graphic. This monthly illustrated number of one of the early twentieth century's foremost journals of social work was edited by Alain Locke, who later later published an expanded form of this magazine as the New Negro anthology. The issue contains Johnson's essay "The Making of Harlem."

Texts

• The American Academy of Poets
  This well designed exhibit includes a biography of Johnson; texts of "Go Down, Death," "Listen, Lord: A Prayer," and "Lift Every Voice and Sing"; and a RealAudio recording of Arna Bontemps reading "The Creation."

• The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man
  Eric Eldred of Eldritch Press has made Johnson's only novel available online.

• Fifty Years & Other Poems
  The Humanities Text Initiative American Verse Collection developed by the University of Michigan provides the entire text of Johnson's first and arguably most important collection of poetry.

• Harlem Renaissance
  Developed by Jill Diesman of Northern Kentucky University, this site provides the text of seven Johnson poems: "O Black and Unknown Bards," "Fifty Years, 1863-1913," "The Creation," "The Glory of the Day Was in Her Face," "Sence You Went Away," "My City," and "Lift Every Voice and Sing."

Educational Materials

• Exploring Poetry
  An online sample of the CD-ROM from Gale Research, this site includes a biography of Johnson and significant information about "The Creation," including the text of the poem, an overview of its origins, an examination of its style and structure, sources for further research, and suggestions for classroom discussion topics.

• The Heath Anthology of American Literature
  Contributing editor Arthenia J. Bates Millican offers strategies for teaching Johnson's poetry in the classroom, including analysis of themes, style, and audience.

• A Middle School Approach to Black Literature
  Ivory Erkerd's curriciulum unit for the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute provides middle school teachers with lesson plans and additional information on Johnson, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, and Maya Angelou.

• PAL: Perspectives in American Literature
  A research and reference guide by Paul P. Reuben, chapter 9 includes a section on Johnson that offers the text of "The Creation," comprehensive primary and secondary bibliographies, and a very useful collection of study questions.