Career
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Poet, novelist, songwriter, editor, historian, civil rights leader, diplomat, lawyer, and educator. Stanton Central Grammar School for Negroes, Jacksonville, Florida, teacher, later principal, 1894-1901; Daily American (newspaper), Jacksonville, founder and co-editor, 1895-1896; admitted to the Bar of the State of Florida, 1898; private law practice, Jacksonville, 1898-1901; songwriter for the musical theater in partnership with brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, and Bob Cole, New York City, 1901-06; United States Consul to Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, 1906-09, and to Corinto, Nicaragua, 1909-13; New York Age (newspaper), New York City, editorial writer, 1914-24; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), New York City, field secretary, 1916-20, executive secretary, 1920-30; Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, professor of creative literature and writing, 1931-38; elected treasurer of the Colored Republican Club, New York City, and participated in Theodore Roosevelt's presidential campaign, both in 1904; lectured on literature and black culture at numerous colleges and universities during the 1930s, including New York, Northwestern, and Yale Universities, Oberlin and Swarthmore Colleges, and the Universities of North Carolina and Chicago. Served as director of the American Fund for Public Service and as trustee of Atlanta University.
