Along This Way The Autobiography of James Weldon Johnson

New York: Viking Press, 1933. First Edition, Second Printing. Hardcover. Good +. First edition, second printing. Hard cover. Octavo. 418pp with b/w photographs. Rebound with leather spine and retaining original boards. Three page edges with a little loss. Text unaffected.Noted NAACP leader. In 1916, James Weldon Johnson was invited to serve as field secretary. Johnson was a former U.S. consul to Venezuela and a noted African-American scholar and columnist. Within four years, Johnson was instrumental in increasing the NAACP's membership from 9,000 to almost 90,000.In 1920, he was the first African American to be chosen as executive secretary of the organization, (truncated) effectively the operating officer. He served in that position from 1920 to 1930. Johnson established his reputation as a writer, and was known during the Harlem Renaissance for his poems, novel, and anthologies collecting both poems and spirituals of black culture. He wrote the lyrics for "Lift Every Voice and Sing", which later became known as the Negro National Anthem, the music being written by his younger brother, composer J. Rosamond Johnson. In 1934, he was the first African-American professor to be hired at New York University. (Inventory #: 602)