Brother of com­pos­er John Johnson, James stu­died lit­er­a­ture at At­lan­ta Un­i­ver­si­ty (grad­u­at­ed 1894, MA 1904), and went on to be­come a song writ­er, an­thol­o­gist, teach­er, and law­yer; he was the first Af­ri­can-Amer­i­can to pass the bar in the state of Flor­i­da. In 1906 he be­came the Amer­i­can con­sul in Puer­to Ca­bel­lo, Ven­e­zue­la, and in 1909, con­sul in Co­rin­to, Ni­ca­ra­gua. In 1920, he was ap­point­ed Exec­u­tive Sec­re­ta­ry of the Na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion for the Ad­vance­ment of Col­ored Peo­ple. His works in­clude:

• The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, 1920
• The Book of Amer­i­can Negro Poetry, 1922
• God’s Trombones, 1927
• Along This Way, 1933

Sources

Hymns

1. Lift Every Voice and Sing