Georgia Douglas Johnson was an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance and the first modern African-American female poet and playwright to gain widespread recognition.
Johnson was born in 1877 in Atlanta, Georgia to parents of mixed ancestry including african and native american on her mother, Laura Jackson Camp’s side, and african-american and english heritage on her father, George Camp’s side. She would later draw on her mixed heritage in her literary output. Johnson grew up in Rome, Georgia and excelled in reading, recitations and physical education at school. During this time, she also taught herself to play the violin. Johnson then attended Atlanta University Normal School, graduating in 1893. She then briefly worked as a teacher and assistant principal before continuing her education at the Oberlin Conservatory and the Cleveland College of Music. Johnson intended to focus on musical composition, but soon became interested in lyrical poetry instead.
In 1905, Johnson had her first poem published in the literary journal The Voice of the Negro. Five years later, she moved with her husband (whom she had married in 1903) to Washington D.C. In 1916, three of her poems called “Gossamer,” “Fame”, and “My Little One” were published in the NAACP’s magazine Crisis. The publication marked the beginning of her prolific writing career. Two years later, she published a volume of poetry entitled The Heart of a Woman which detailed the difficulties and frustrations faced by women. The book of poetry established her as one of the notable African American woman poets of her time. Some critics recognised the work as a deeply autobiographical, feminist work, but many criticised the fact that Johnson did not directly address racial issues. Johnson followed this up in 1922 with Bronze, in which she wrote poetry about interracial relationships and the difficulty of being a mother in a racist world. The work was celebrated by the African-American community, and featured an introduction by W.E.B. Du Bois.
In 1925, Johnson’s husband died and she was forced to work temporary jobs to support her two sons. She managed not only to provide for them, but to pay for college as well as one son’s law degree and the other’s medical degree. Her home became known as the site of the S Street Salon, and was an important meeting place for African American writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance in Washington, D.C. The salon’s Saturday Nighter’s Club attracted many prominent African-American writers including Zora Neale Hurston. She also called her home the “Half Way House”, where friends who were travelling could stay, people could discuss politics and personal opinions and those without money or a place to stay would be welcome.
In 1925, Johnson was appointed by President Calvin Coolidge as commissioner of conciliation for the Department of Labor. She continued to write, and in 1926 began to write a weekly newspaper column called “Homely Philosophy” that was syndicated in 20 newspapers across the country. She would write it until 1932. In 1926, she wrote her first play Blue Blood about the rape of black women by white men in the South after the Civil War. It won an honourable mention in the Opportunity drama contest. A year later, she wrote Plumes, published under the pen name John Temple. It won first place in Opportunity magazine’s play contest. Although Johnson wrote 28 plays during her lifetime, many of them were never published due to the fact that they dealt with gender and race. In 1928, Johnson returned to the poetry she was most comfortable with and published An Autumn Love Cycle, which is considered her best volume of poetry.
In 1930, her play Blue-Eyed Black Boy was published in Alain Locke’s anthology Plays of Negro Life: A Source-Book of Native American Drama. Johnson was the only woman whose work was featured. The play was written to try and convince Congress to pass anti-lynching laws. Johnson was involved in the NAACP’s anti-lynching campaigns of 1936 and 1938, but they refused to produce many of her plays dealing with the subject as she refused to give them a happy ending. Johnson was also a member of the Writers League against Lynching, which campaigned for a federal anti-lynching bill.
In 1934, Johnson lost her Department of Labour job and was forced to work temporary jobs as a teacher, librarian and file clerk. Despite the fact that she had written more than 200 poems, 40 plays, 30 songs, and edited 100 books by 1930, she struggled to get published. Many of her works have been lost. Johnson continued to write until her death, and during World War II she would read poetry on the radio. She also began writing short stories during this time, three of which were written under the pen name Paul Tremaine. Johnson returned to song writing in her later years. In 1962, her final book of poetry, Share My World was published. Three years later she was awarded with a honorary doctorate from Atlanta University for her great contributions to American literature. She died in 1966 in Washington D.C. In September 2009, it was announced that Johnson would be inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.