1800s

1871

Born June 17 to James and Helen Louise Dillet Johnson in Jacksonville, Florida

1884

Makes trip to New York City.

1886

Meets Frederick Douglass in Jacksonville.

1887

Graduates from Stanton School in Jacksonville. Enters Atlanta University Preparatory Division.

1890

Graduates from Atlanta University Preparatory Division. Enters Atlanta University's freshman class.

1891

Teaches school in Henry County, Georgia, during the summer following his freshman year.

1892

Wins Atlanta University Oratory Prize for "The Best Methods of Removing the Disabilities of Caste from the Negro."

1893

Meets Paul Laurence Dunbar at the Chicago World's Fair.

1894

Receives B. A. degree with honors from Atlanta University. Delivers the valedictory speech, "The Destiny of the Human Race." Tours New England with the Atlanta University Quartet for three months. Is appointed principal of the Stanton School in Jacksonville.

1895

Founds The Daily American, an afternoon daily newspaper serving Jacksonville's black population.

1896

Expands Stanton to high school status, making it the first public high school for blacks in the state of Florida.

1898

Becomes the first African American to be admitted to the Florida bar. Opens a law office with J. Douglas Wetmore.

1900s

1900

“Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” with his lyrics and music by his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, performed by schoolchildren— “a chorus of five hundred voices” —arranged to celebrate President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.

1901

Elected president of the Florida State Teachers Association. Nearly lynched in a Jacksonville park. This near lynching made him realize that he could not advance in the South.

1902

Resigns as principal of Stanton School. Moves to New York to form musical trio with his brother Rosamond and the famous vaudevillian Bob Cole. Becomes the chief lyricist in the Broadway musical team, Cole and the Johnson Brothers. (The trio will write nine songs for Broadway productions.)

1903

Attends graduate school at Columbia University, where he studies with Brander Matthews, professor of dramatic literature.

1904

Writes two songs for Theodore Roosevelt's presidential campaign. Becomes a member of the National Business League, an organization founded by Booker T. Washington. Receives honorary degree from Atlanta University. During this time, he meets W. E. B. Du Bois then a professor at Atlanta University.

1905

Cole and Johnson Brothers go on European tour.

1906

Accepts membership in the Society of International Law. Is appointed U. S. Consul to Venezuela by President Theodore Roosevelt.

1909

Is promoted to U. S. Consul to Corinto, Nicaragua. Is engaged to Grace Elizabeth Nail in October.

1910

Marries Grace Nail, daughter of wealthy New York real estate developer and tavern owner John Bennett Nail, on February 3 at the Nails' family home in New York City.

1912

Publishes anonymously The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, probably the earliest first-person fictional narrative by an African American.

1913

Resigns from the consular service on account of race prejudice and party politics.

1914

Accepts position as contributing editor to The New York Age. With Irving Berlin, Victor Herbert, and John Philip Sousa, becomes a founding member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Joins Sigma Pi Phi fraternity and Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.

1915

Becomes member of the NAACP. Puts into English the libretto of Goyescas, the Spanish grand opera, which is produced at the Metropolitan Opera.

1916

Attends the NAACP conference in Amenia, New York, at the estate of J. E. Spingarn. Delivers speech, "A Working Programme for the Future." Joins the staff of the NAACP in the position of field secretary.

1917

Publishes volume Fifty Years and Other Poems. Publishes poem "Saint Peter Relates an Incident of the Resurrection Day." With W. E. B. Du Bois, leads over 15,000 marchers down Fifth Avenue to protest lynchings and riots. Becomes acting secretary of the NAACP. Supports U. S. entry into World War I and fights against the atrocities perpetrated against black soldiers. Meets Walter White in Atlanta and persuades him to join the staff of the NAACP. Attends conference of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society in Bellport, New York, gives talk on the contribution of the Negro to American culture. With W. E. B. Du Bois, becomes a charter member for the Civic Club, a liberal club that grew to be a strong influence in the life of black New Yorkers.

1918

Is responsible for an unprecedented increase in NAACP membership in one year, particularly in the South, making the NAACP a national power.

1919

Participates in converting the National Civil Liberties Bureau into a permanent organization, the American Civil Liberties Union.

1920

NAACP board of directors name him secretary (chief executive officer), making him the first African American to serve in that position. Publishes "Self Determining Haiti" which draws on his earlier investigation of the American occupation there.

1922

Publishes The Book of American Negro Poetry.

1924

Assists several writers of the Harlem Renaissance.

1925

Receives the NAACP's Spingarn Medal. Co-authors with J. Rosamond Johnson The Book of American Negro Spirituals.

1926

Co-authors with J. Rosamond Johnson The Second Book of American Negro Spirituals. James Weldon Johnson and Grace Nail Johnson purchase an old farm in the Massachusetts Berkshires and builds a summer cottage called “Five Acres.”

1927

During the height of the Harlem Renaissance, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is reprinted. (The spelling "coloured" was used to enhance British sales.) God's Trombones is published.

1928

Receives Harmon Award for God's Trombones. Receives D. Litt.

from Howard University and Talledega College.

1929

Takes a leave of absence from the NAACP. Travels to Japan to attend the Third Japanese Biennial Conference on Pacific Relations. Receives Julius Rosenwald Fellowship to write Black Manhattan.

1930

Black Manhattan, the story of African Americans in New York from the seventeenth century to the 1920s is published. Resigns from the NAACP December 17.

1931

Publishes the revised edition of The Book of American Negro Poetry. NAACP honors him by hosting a testimonial dinner in New York City attended by over 300 guests. Is appointed vice president and board member of the NAACP. Accepts Fisk University appointment as the Adam K. Spence Professor of Creative Literature.

1933

Publishes autobiography, Along This Way. Attends the second NAACP Amenia Conference.

1934

Is appointed visiting professor, fall semester, at New York University, becoming the first African American to hold such a position at the institution. Receives the Du Bois Prize for Black Manhattan as the best book of prose written by an African American during a three-year period. Publishes Negro Americans, What Now?

1935

Publishes Saint Peter Relates an Incident: Selected Poems.

1936

Board of Directors of Atlanta University offers him the position of president of the university. He declines the offer.

1938

Dies June 26 as a result of an automobile accident in Wiscasset, Maine, nine days after his sixty-seventh birthday. Funeral held at the Salem Methodist Church in Harlem on Thursday, June 30. Is cremated.

1941

Grace Nail Johnson contributes Johnson’s papers to Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library to create the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection to celebrate African American writers and artists.

1976

Mrs. James Weldon Johnson (Grace Nail Johnson) died on November 1, 1976, at home in New York City. Grace and James Weldon Johnson were interred together by Ollie Jewel Sims Okala on November 19, 1976, in the John B. Nail family plot in the Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.

2000s

2010

James Weldon Johnson Literary Executor and Scholar Dr. Sondra Kathryn Wilson passes away. Jill Rosenberg Jones becomes the James Weldon Johnson Literary Executor.

2011

Jill Rosenberg Jones and Rufus E. Jones, Jr. purchase the Johnson’s summer cottage and writing cabin known as “Five Acres” in The Berkshires.

2016

Jill Rosenberg Jones and Rufus E. Jones, Jr. establish the James Weldon Johnson Foundation to advance the legacy of Johnson through educational, intellectual and artistic works.