The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man JAMES WELDON JOHNSON

O ne of the most prominent African-Americans of his time, James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) was a successful lawyer, educa! tor, social reformer, songwriter and critic. But it wa Poe and novelist that he achieved lasting fame. Among his most famous works, The Aurob Col Man in many ways parallels Johnson's published in 1912, the novel relates, throi pous. narrato events in the life of an American of mi deth city whose excep tional abilities and ambiguous appearance alloy? bim unusual social mobility--from the rural South to the urban North and eventuält to Europe.