Of James W. Johnson's The Autobiography Of An Ex-Colored Man

While Johnson was a highly celebrated and versatile literary figure, his most well known work is The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man . Even though this title suggests that this work was his own story, it was actually a novel, the first African-American one to mask itself as an autobiography. In this novel, the illegitimate son of a southern white man and his mulatto mistress struggles to find his identity and place in the world. Being light-skinned, he does not discover his black blood until he is segregated from the white students in his school. As he ages, he leaves the south to discover his identity. His travels lead him to New York City as well as Europe. The narrator, who is never named, struggles with his mixed heritage and concludes that he must decide whether to embrace his African-American self and or pass for white and devote his life to accumulating wealth. His first attempt is to be a proud black man and adopt the struggle for racial justice. After witnessing a devastating lynching, however, he reverses his original course and focuses on passing for white. In doing so, he travels and

This is a fictional autobiography written by James Weldon Johnson and it is told from the first-person perspective of an unnamed male narrator. Even though the narrative was written in 1912 it was reissued in 1927 and is considered one of the most distinguished works of the Harlem Renaissance. The struggle that the narrator seems to have with his identity throughout the novel seems to connect best with the idea of double consciousness that we covered in class by W. E. B. Du Bois. This situation is however a bit different given the narrators biracial qualities. His physical characteristics allow him to pass as a white man even though he is actually African American. The novel takes a social stance and shows how the narrator, in order to avoid violent racism and oppression, decides it best to conceal his blackness.

In 1912, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man was anonymously published by James Weldon Johnson. It is the narrative of a light-skinned man wedged between two racial categories; the offspring of a white father and a black mother, The Ex-Colored man is visibly white but legally classified as black. Wedged between these two racial categories, the man chooses to “pass” to the white society. In Passing: When People Can’t Be Who They Are, Brooke Kroeger describes “passing” as an act when “people effectively present themselves as other than who they understand themselves to be” (Kroeger 7). The Ex-Colored Man’s choice to ultimately “pass” at the end of the novel has been the cause of controversy amongst readers. Many claim his choice to “pass”

The Autobiography of An Ex-Colored Man depicts the narrator as a liminal character. Beginning with an oblivious knowledge of race as a child, and which racial group he belonged, to his well knowing of “white” and “black” and the ability to pass as both. On the account of liminality, the narrator is presenting himself as an outsider. Because he is both a “white” and “black” male, he does not fit in with either racial group. In the autobiography of an Ex-colored man, James Weldon Johnson uses double consciousness to show the narrators stance as a person that gives up his birthright for the “privilege of whiteness”.

James Weldon Johnson author of The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man discusses the issue of race and identity in his short story. Writing in first person Johnson follows the unnamed protagonist from childhood up to adulthood, he demonstrates in different areas how this unnamed man handles his identity and his race as colored. The fact that he remains nameless throughout the story shows more of the connection between identity and race. During the course of the story Johnson’s protagonist makes the argument that identity is highly based upon the race of the individual. His journey from adolescence to adulthood as a colored man seems to play a keen role in the jobs he makes and the people he interacts with, ultimately defining his identity based on his race.

The narrator of The Autobiography grows up his whole life thinking that he is white. It is not until one fateful day in school where a teacher indirectly tells him that he is black that he finds out. This revelation, which he himself describes as “a sword-thrust” (Johnson 13), suggests a transformation, a great change, a development in the Ex-Colored Man’s racial consciousness in the future. However, as M. Giulia Fabi says, “[The ECM’s] proclaimed loyalty to his ‘mother’s people’ is continuously undercut by his admiration for and identification with mainstream white America” (375). She also indicates how when contrasted with previous passers, “the Ex-Colored Man’s oft-noted cowardice,

“Being the token Negro was something I was never entirely comfortable with. I was the only black kid in my fifth-grade class at P.S. 138 in the then all-white enclave of Rosedale, Queens.”

James Weldon Johnson was a large creative aspect to African Americans. His work as a poet, songwriter, author, and civil rights activist made a great impact on African American culture from the early 20th century till today. James Weldon Johnson was born on June 17, 1871. His education first began at home by his mother who was a musician and a public school teacher. She then shared with him the love for English Literature and European music. In 1901, he moved to New York City to work with his brother in Musical Theatre, where he wrote his most successful poem: Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing. Although the Johnson’s song was never actively promoted by his publisher, it was the children that kept the song alive, and made it to what

Tom discovers his real identity which changes his life drastically. He is finally aware of the fact that he is not white and it become noticeable in various ways. “It was the ‘nigger’ in him asserting its humility, and he blushed and was abashed. And the ‘nigger’ in him was surprised when the white friend put out his hand for a shake with him” P.56 Tom’s behavior is innate and raises the question of nature and nurture, and racial heritage.

Hello my name James Johnson, and I am a enslaved african american that is currently living on a plantation in the territory of North Carolina. I am twenty five years old, and ever since I can remember, I have always been interested in human rights for the people of my race who are constantly faced with criticism, prejudice, and inequality.

Curiosity was inevitable for the boy, however, and led him into what William E. Cross’s Nigresence Model declared was the immersion stage of racial identity for a black person. In this stage, African Americans basically submerge

In the world of “The Man Who Was Almost a Man”, Dave is the seventeen year old main character and narrator of Richard Wright’s short story. Dave is an African American sharecropper who lives with his family on a white plantation owner’s land. Set in the Jim Crow South, independence is a trait that not many Americans possess. Under Jim Crow laws, the status of an African American man is undermined. It is humiliating to many of the men it affects because they are often referred to as “boy”, and they may never achieve full citizenship due to their race.

The setting is in the 1930s, at a black college in the south. also in New York city, especially Harlem. The narrator is born and raised in the American South, then ends up in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem, which is a major area of African-American culture. The narrator finds the contrast between the North and the South unbelievable—he is perplexed to find white drivers obeying the directives of a black policeman, on the subway he stresses out about being in such closeness to a white woman, and in the diner he wonders if it 's insulting to tip a white waiter. In the North, then, the narrator experiences a certain amount of unprecedented racial freedom.

Although he was a man who seemed to be a good ‘Negro’ who was loyal to white Americans, on his death bed, he told his grandchildren not to be fooled, but rather be ashamed of themselves, which was a shock to his children and grandchildren. The grandfather’s words continue to haunt the narrator as he attends the black college and experiences segregation and difficulties as an African American in the North, despite the better racial environments. Therefore, the grandfather is an important figure who influences the initial acts of the narrator and allows him to look back to his memory with his grandfather to fully understand his identity.

Black Like Me takes place in a few run-down towns in both New Orleans and the deep south of Mississippi and Alabama. Centered around these areas great tension arises as John Howard Griffin, both our central character and author, takes a great risk of changing his skin pigmentation in order to make himself appear as a former negro. During the time period of the 1950’s the racial question; do negroes deserve their rights, led him to conduct this experiment without knowing of the long road that lay ahead. Black Like Me contains many different aspects of how people were treated back then due to racial tensions. Whites hated the negroes, while the negroes had nothing against the white folks. Black Like Me portrayed the aspects accurately using the harsh criticism directed towards him and other negroes by white folks and writing about his journey for others to learn from. Three reasons that support the evaluation above include: white folks letting Griffin purchase goods from their stores, but not letting him use the restroom or purchase something to drink/eat. The other reasons include: rude and disrespectful words being shouted at him followed by dirty looks and the fact that Griffin got treated differently by his own race simply because of the pigmentation of his skin.