James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) was an American writer, poet, lyricist, diplomat, educator, and civil rights leader of the Harlem Renaissance. Executive secretary of the NAACP, he co-wrote with his brother J. Rosamond Johnson the hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” His pioneering novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (first published anonymously in 1912; reissued under his name in 1927) explores race, identity, and the moral costs of “passing,” securing Johnson’s place among the most influential voices in early twentieth-century American literature.