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'''Georgia Blanche Douglas Camp Johnson''', better known as '''Georgia Douglas Johnson''' (September 10, 1880 – May 15, 1966), was a [[poet]] and playwright. She was one of the earliest female [[African-American]] [[playwrights]],<ref name="Plays of" /> and an important figure of the [[Harlem Renaissance]].
==Early life==
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== Marriage and family ==
On September 28, 1903, Douglas married [[Henry Lincoln Johnson]] (1870–1925), an Atlanta lawyer and prominent [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] party member who was ten years older than she.<ref>{{
Douglas' marital life was affected by her writing ambition, for her husband was not supportive of her literary passion, insisting that she devote more time to becoming a [[homemaker]] than on publishing poetry. But she later dedicated two poems to him, "[[The Heart of a Woman]]" (1918) and "Bronze" (1922), which were praised for their literary quality.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Johnson|first1=Georgia Douglas Camp|title=Bronze : a book of verses|url=https://archive.org/details/bronzebookofvers00john|publisher=Boston : B.J. Brimmer Co.|date=1922}}</ref>
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==== ''The Heart of a Woman'' ====
Johnson was well recognized for her poems collected in ''The Heart of a Woman'' (1918). She explores themes for women such as isolation, loneliness, pain, love and the role of being a woman during this time. Other poems in this collection consist of motherly concerns.<ref>{{
{{poem quote|"The Heart of a Woman"
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In 1926, Johnson's play ''Blue Blood'' won honorable mention in the ''[[Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life|Opportunity]]'' drama contest. Her play ''[[Plumes (play)|Plumes]]'' also won in the same competition in 1927.<ref name="Encyclopedia of Af ...">{{cite book|editor-last=Williams|editor-first=Yolanda |title=Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers|year=2007|publisher=[[Greenwood Press]]|location=[[Westport, CT]]|isbn=978-0313334290}}</ref> ''Plumes'' is a folk drama that relates the dilemma of Charity, the main character, whose baby daughter is dying. She has saved up money for the doctor, but also she and her confidante - Tilde - don't believe the medical care would be successful. She has in mind an extravagant funeral for her daughter instead - with plumes, [[wiktionary:hack#Etymology 3|hacks]], and other fancy trimmings. Before Charity makes a decision, her daughter dies.<ref name=PlaceStage/> ''Plumes'' was produced by the Harlem Experimental Theatre between 1928 and 1931.
''[[Blue-Eyed Black Boy]]'' is a 1930 [[Lynching in the United States|lynching]] genre play written to convince Congress to pass anti-lynching laws. This lesser known play premiered in Xoregos Performing Company's program: "[[Songs of the Harlem River]]" in [[New York City]]'s Dream Up Festival, from August 30 to September 6, 2015. "Songs of the [[Harlem River]] - a collection of five one-act plays including ''[[Blue-Eyed Black Boy]]'' also opened the [[Langston Hughes]] Festival in [[Queens, New York]], on February 13, 2016.
In 1935, Johnson wrote two historical plays, ''William and Ellen Craft'' and ''Frederick Douglass.'' ''William and Ellen Craft'' describes the escape of a black couple from slavery, in a work about the importance of self-love, the use of religion for support, and the power of strong relationships between black men and women. Her work ''Frederick Douglass'' is about [[Frederick Douglass|his]] personal qualities that are not as much in the public eye: his love and tenderness for Ann, who he met while still enslaved, and then was married to in freedom for over four decades. Other themes include the spirit of survival, the need for self-education, and the value of the community and of the extended family.<ref name=PlaceStage>{{Cite book| last=Brown-Guillory|first=Elizabeth|author-link=Elizabeth Brown-Guillory|title=Their Place on the Stage: Black Women Playwrights in America|publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group|Greenwood Press]]|year=1988|isbn=9780313259852|location=[[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]]| url=https://archive.org/details/theirplaceonstag0000brow |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
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===Anti-lynching activism===
Although Johnson spoke out against race inequity as a whole, she is more known as a key advocate in the [[anti-lynching movement]] as well as a pioneering member of the [[Lynching in the United States|lynching]] drama tradition. Her activism is primarily expressed through her plays, first appearing in the play ''Sunday Morning in the South'' in 1925.<ref name=PlaceStage /> This outspoken, dramatic writing about racial violence is sometimes credited with her obscurity as a playwright since such topics were not considered appropriate for a woman at that time.<ref name="Art, Activsm" /> Unlike many African-American playwrights, Johnson refused to give her plays a happy ending since she did not feel it was a realistic outcome. As a result, Johnson had difficulty getting plays published.<ref name="umn.edu"/> Though she was involved in the [[NAACP]]'s anti-lynching campaigns of 1936 and 1938,<ref name="Art, Activsm" /> the NAACP refused to produce many of her plays claiming they gave a feeling of hopelessness.<ref name="Johnson letter">Prentiss, Craig R. [https://books.google.com/books?id=qn0UCgAAQBAJ
Gloria Hull in her book ''Color, Sex, and Poetry'', argues that Johnson's work ought to be placed in an exceedingly distinguished place within the [[Harlem Renaissance]], and that for African-American women writers "they desperately need and deserve long overdue scholarly attention". Hull, through a black feminist critical perspective, appointed herself the task of informing those within the dark of the very fact that African-American women, like Georgia Douglas Johnson, are being excluded from being thought of as key voices of the Harlem Renaissance. Johnson's anti-lynching activism was expressed through her plays such as ''The Ordeal'', which was printed in Alain Locke's anthology ''[[The New Negro: An Interpretation|The New Negro]]''. Her poems describe African Americans and their mental attitude once having faced prejudice towards them and the way they modify it. Isolationism and anti-feminist prejudice however prevented the sturdy African-American women like Johnson from getting their remembrance and impact with such contributions.<ref name=":1" />
===S Street Salon ===
Soon after her husband's death, Johnson began to host what became 40 years of weekly "Saturday Salons" for friends and authors, including [[Langston Hughes]], [[Jean Toomer]], [[Anne Spencer]], [[Richard Bruce Nugent]], [[Alain Locke]], [[Jessie Redmon Fauset]], [[Angelina Weld Grimké]] and [[Eulalie Spence]] — all major contributors to the New Negro Movement, which is better known today as the [[Harlem Renaissance]].<ref name=":02">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nx7po3C2ENYC&q=S+street+Salon+Georgia+Douglas+Johnson&pg=PA106|title=The Cambridge Companion to American Women Playwrights|last=Murphy|first=Brenda|date=June 28, 1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521576802|language=en}}</ref> Georgia Douglas Johnson's house at 1461
Johnson called her home the "Half Way House" for friends traveling, and a place where they "could freely discuss politics and personal opinions" and where those with no money and no place to stay would be welcome.<ref name="umn.edu" /> Although black men were allowed to attend, it mostly consisted of black women such as [[May Miller]], [[Marita Bonner]], [[Mary P. Burrill|Mary Burrill]], [[Alice Dunbar Nelson|Alice Dunbar-Nelson]], [[Zora Neale Hurston]], and [[Angelina Weld Grimké|Angelina Weld Grimke]].<ref name=":02" /> Johnson was especially close to the writer Angelina Weld Grimké. This Salon was known to have discussions on issues such as [[Lynching in the United States|lynching]], [[women's rights]], and the problems facing African-American families.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=86uzDgAAQBAJ&q=S+street+Salon+Georgia+Douglas+Johnson&pg=PT136|title=Colored No More: Reinventing Black Womanhood in Washington|last=Lindsey|first=Treva B.|date=April 15, 2017|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=9780252099571|language=en}}</ref> They became known as the "Saturday Nighters."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/86002923|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form}}</ref>
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== Legacy and honors ==
Throughout her life, Johnson had written 200 poems, 28 plays and 31 short stories.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://washingtonart.com/beltway/gdjohnson.html|title=Georgia Douglas Johnson|last=Jean|first=Valerie|website=Washington Art}}</ref> In 1962, she published her last poetry book, entitled ''Share My World'', the poems in which reflect on love towards all people and forgiveness, showing how much wisdom she has gained throughout her entire life.
In 1965, Atlanta University presented Douglas with an honorary doctorate of literature, praising her as a "sensitive singer of sad songs; faithful interpreter of the feminine heart of a Negro with its joys, sorrows, limitations and frustrations of racial oppression in a male-dominated world; dreamer of broken dreams...".<ref name="Georgia Writers Hall of Fame">{{Cite web|url=https://georgiawritershalloffame.org/honorees/georgia-douglas-johnson|title=Hall of Fame Honorees {{!}} Georgia Douglas Johnson|website=Georgia Writers Hall of Fame}}</ref>
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*''Safe'' (c. 1929)
*''Blue-Eyed Black Boy'' (c. 1930)
*''[[Starting Point (play)|Starting Point]]'' (1930s)
*''William and Ellen Craft'' (1935)
*''Frederick Douglass'' (1935)
*''[[And Yet They Paused]]'' (1938)
*''A Bill to Be Passed'' (1938)<ref name="Plays of">Stephens, Judith L. (ed.), ''The Plays of Georgia Douglas Johnson: From the New Negro Renaissance to the Civil Rights Movement''. [[Urbana, IL]]: [[University of Illinois Press]], 2005. {{ISBN|0252073339}}.</ref>
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[[Category:1880 births]]
[[Category:1966 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights]]
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[[Category:African-American dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:African-American poets]]
[[Category:American anti-lynching activists]]
[[Category:American salon-holders]]
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