Preface to The Book of American Negro Poetry

Essay

By: James Weldon Johnson

Date: 1922

Source: Johnson, James Weldon. Preface to The Book of American Negro Poetry. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1922. Reprint, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1958.

"If We Must Die"

Poem

By: Claude McKay

Date: 1922

Source: McKay, Claude. "If We Must Die." In The Book of American Negro Poetry, James Weldon Johnson, ed. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1922. Reprint, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1958, 168–169.

About the Author: James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) is considered the elder statesman of the Harlem Renaissance. In addition to his numerous literary contributions, he was an NAACP organizer and a U.S. consul to Venezuela. Johnson penned the famous "Lift Ev'ry Voice...