The McDowell times. [volume] (Keystone, W. Va.) 1904-1941, 1938-07-15

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race. Indeed the years which he
devoted to the leadership of this
militant organization were but
an interlude, and one might say
a strange interlude between the
earlier and later stages of his
career. We first discover him as
a partner of Cole and Johnson
and author of Rag" music
then IN vogue, typifed by his
Under the Bamboo Tree" In
the reclining years his leisure,
we findthim dignfied professor
of Creative Literature in two
American universities. one black
and one white. Thus both ends
of his career contrast with the
middle.
James Weldon Johnson made
a brief incursion into the field
of politics. He first belonged to
the New York Literary Eel
laws" the metropolitan counter
part of the Boston cabal of col
lege SclonS who were oath
bound to offset the industrial
propaganda of Booker L. Wash
ington. William Monroe Trotter,
George Forbes and William III.
Lewis, were the leaders of this
c b |. BY shrewd political
finesse the wizard of Tuskegee
sought to wean Johnson and
Lewis from their hostile align
ment by offering them the al
lurements of office. Johnson
appointed to an important post
in the conselar service; he accept
ed the assignment and served
efficiently until replaced by "a
Democratic administration. He
then entered the service of the
NAACP, which was anti-Wash-
ington in origin, spirit and OBJ
jective. However under the
guiding hand of Joel f. Spin
garn t h i s militant originator
didn't dramatic its hostility to
the great industrial leader by
violent controversy and vocal
antagonism. 1t must be said for
James Weldon Johnson that he
was never Mr.. Washington 5
bitter or violent opponent. There
was no bitterness in his nature.
1t was this which made him so
readily acceptable to the white
race. a.
James Weldon johnson was
not a poet par Sc or par excell-
ence like Paul Lawrence Dunbar.
He might fairly be called d
literary dilettante, scribbling
prose or verse as the mode or
the occasion required. He wrote
coon songs, for minstrel shows,
llbrettos for light opera, the
Negro National Anthem, or
Gods Trombones, as the spirit
moved him or opportunity pre-
scented itself. His Ex-Colored
Man, was not his own autobio-
graphy b u that of Douglass
Wetmdre, his boon companion
w h o played the double racial
role both simulstaItously and
at different times. Gods from
bones, usually regarded as his
masterpiece, was but transla-
ton in literary form of the
perturbation Of the Hebrew
scripture, an art which he learn
ed from his father who was a
typical Baptist of the older
evangelistical type. His poetic
genius reaches it's highest peak
in THE White Witch Rides To-
night" in which he admonishes
Har!emites Of the besetting sin.
James Weldon Johnson'S re-
putation as a poet and literary
man is secure in the keeping of
the white race, for he utterinp
nothing base or offensive to
their racial sensibilTty. He was
the Negroes ambassador Of
letters to the white race honored
and admired. Kelly Miller.
Where is the Negro Heaven?
Senator John Sherman Of
Ohio, by an Incidental remark
on the floor Of the Senate, once
referred to Washington as the
Negroes idea Of Heaven. The ap-
nlicaiiAn etnck For. O ln,,n. Airnn