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{{short description|American poet and playwright (1880–1966)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=December 2022}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Georgia Douglas Johnson
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1880|09|10}}
| birth_place = [[Atlanta, Georgia|Atlanta]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1966|05|15|1880|09|10}}
| death_place = [[Washington, D.C.]], U.S.
| resting_place =
| occupation = {{flatlist|
* [[Poet]] * one of the earliest African-American female [[playwrights]] * music teacher * school principal }}
| language =
▲| nationality = [[Americans|American]]
| citizenship =
| education = [[Atlanta University]]'s [[Normal School]]
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}}
'''Georgia Blanche Douglas Camp Johnson''', better known as '''Georgia Douglas Johnson''' (September 10, 1880 – May 15, 1966), was
==Early life==
She was born as Georgia Blanche Douglas Camp in 1880 in [[Atlanta, Georgia|Atlanta]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], to Laura Douglas and George Camp<ref name="umn.edu">Atkins, Alyssa, Theresa Crushshon and Chanida Phaengdara. [http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/166237/Johnson%2c%20Georgia%20Douglas.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y "Voices from the Gaps: Georgia Douglas Johnson."] [[University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy]], December 15, 2015. Retrieved April 17, 2017.</ref> (her mother's last name is listed in other sources as Jackson).<ref name="georgiaencyclopedia.com">Palumbo, Carmine D. [
Camp lived for much of her childhood in [[Rome, Georgia|Rome]], Georgia. She received her education in both Rome and
She graduated from [[Atlanta University]]'s [[Normal School]] in 1896.<ref name="georgiaencyclopedia.com"/> She taught school in [[Marietta, Georgia|Marietta]], Georgia. In 1902 she left her teaching career to pursue her interest in music, attending [[Oberlin Conservatory of Music]] in [[Ohio]]. She wrote music from 1898 until 1959. After studying in Oberlin, Johnson returned to Atlanta, where she became assistant principal in a public school.<ref name="Plays of" />
== Marriage and family ==
On September 28, 1903, Douglas married [[Henry Lincoln Johnson]] (
Douglas'
==Career==
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Her poems were published in several issues of ''[[The Crisis]]'', the journal of the [[NAACP]] that was founded and edited by [[W. E. B. Du Bois]]. "Calling Dreams" was published in January 1920, "Treasure" in July 1922, and "To Your Eyes" in November 1924.
During the 1920s, Douglas Johnson traveled extensively to give poetry readings. In 1925 her husband died, and she was widowed at the age of 45. She had to rear their two teenage sons by herself.<ref name="Oxford comp">{{cite book|
But as a gesture to her late husband's loyalty and political service, Republican President [[Calvin Coolidge]] appointed Douglas Johnson as the [[Commissioner]] of [[Conciliation]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), South Africa {{!}} Access|url=http://www.accessfacility.org/commission-conciliation-mediation-and-arbitration-ccma-south-africa|website=www.accessfacility.org|language=en}}</ref> a political appointee position within the [[United States Department of Labor|Department of Labor]]. In 1934, during the Democratic administration of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], she lost this political appointee job. She returned to supporting herself with temporary clerical work.<ref name="Poetry Foundation">{{Cite web|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/georgia-douglas-johnson|title=Georgia Douglas Johnson|date=
Johnson's literary success resulted in her becoming the first African-American woman to get national notice for her poetry since [[Frances Ellen Watkins Harper]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/douglas-johnson/life.htm|title=Georgia Douglas Johnson's Life and Career|website=Georgia Douglas Johnson's Life and Career}}</ref> In 1962 she published her last poetry collection, ''Share My World.''{{Citation needed|date=May 2019}}
==== ''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>{{
{{
The heart of a woman goes forth with the dawn,
As a lone bird, soft winging, so restlessly on,
Afar o'er life's turrets and vales does it roam
In the wake of those echoes, the heart calls home.
The heart of a woman falls back with the night,
And enters some alien cage in its plight,
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==== ''Bronze'' ====
Johnson's collection published as ''Bronze'' had a popular theme of racial issues; she continued to explore motherhood and being a woman of color. In the foreword of ''Bronze'' she said: "Those who know what it means to be a colored woman in
{{poemquote|
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Johnson was a well-known figure in the national black theatre movement and was an important "cultural sponsor" in the early twentieth century, assembling and inspiring the intellectuals and artists who generated the next group of black theatre and rising education (16).<ref name="Plays of" /> Johnson wrote about 28 plays. ''Plumes'' was published under the pen name John Temple.<ref name="umn.edu"/> Many of her plays were never published because of her gender and race.<ref name="Plays of" /> [[Akasha Gloria Hull|Gloria Hull]] is credited with the rediscovery of many of Johnson's plays.<ref name="Oxford comp" /> The 28 plays that she wrote were divided into four groups: "Primitive Life Plays", "Plays of Average Negro Life", "Lynching Plays" and "Radio Plays". The first section, "Primitive Life Plays", features ''Blue Blood'' and ''Plumes'', which were published and produced during Johnson's lifetime.<ref name="Plays of" />
Like several other plays that prominent women of the Harlem Renaissance wrote, ''[[A Sunday Morning in the South]]'' (1925) was provoked by the inconsistencies of American life. These included the contrast between Christian doctrine and white America's treatment of black Americans, the experience of black men who returned from fighting in war to find they lacked constitutional rights, the economic disparity between whites and blacks, and [[miscegenation]].<ref name=PlaceStage/>
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
''[[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|
Johnson was one of the only women whose work was published in [[Alain Locke]]'s anthology ''Plays of Negro Life: A Source-Book of Native American Drama''. Although several of her plays are lost, Johnson's typescripts for 10 of her plays are in collections in academic institutions.<ref name="Plays of" />
===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
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
===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=
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
=== Weekly column ===
{{More citations needed section|date=May 2018}}
Between 1926 and 1932, she wrote short stories, started a letter club, and published a weekly newspaper column called "Homely Philosophy
The column was published in 20 different newspapers, including the ''[[New York News]]'', ''[[Chicago Defender]]'', ''[[Philadelphia Tribune]]'', and ''[[Pittsburgh Courier]]'' and ran from 1926 to 1932. Some of the topics she wrote on were considered inspirational and spiritual for her audience, such as "Hunch",
One of the articles that focused on spirituality was "Our Fourth Eye", in which she wrote
== Legacy and honors ==
Throughout her 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>
When she died in Washington, D.C., in 1966, one of her sister playwrights and a former participant of the S Street Salon, sat by her bedside "stroking her hand and repeating the words, 'Poet Georgia Douglas Johnson'".<ref name=":02" />▼
▲When she died in Washington, D.C., in 1966, one of her sister playwrights and a former participant of the S Street Salon, sat by her bedside "stroking her hand and repeating the words, 'Poet Georgia Douglas Johnson{{'"}}.<ref name=":02" />
Johnson received an honorary doctorate in literature from Atlanta University in 1965.<ref name="Poetry Foundation" /> In September 2009, it was announced that Johnson would be inducted into the [[Georgia Writers Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/091909/uga_494743547.shtml|title=Writers hall picks four inductees|last=|first=|date=September 19, 2009|authorlink=|newspaper=[[Athens Banner Herald]]|accessdate=September 20, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129012418/http://onlineathens.com/stories/091909/uga_494743547.shtml|archive-date=November 29, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>▼
▲
==Major works==
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*''An Autumn Love Cycle'' (1928)
*''Share My World'' (1962)<ref name=poetry>[https://www.culturaltourismdc.org/portal/web/portal%20/georgia-douglas-johnson-and-henry-lincoln-johnson-african-american-heritage-trail "Georgia and Henry Lincoln Douglass, African-American Heritage Trail."] ''culturaltourismdc.org.'' Retrieved April 17, 2017.</ref>
*''The Ordeal''<ref>{{Cite book|title=The New Negro: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance|last=Locke|first=Alain|publisher=Touchstone|year=1999
'''Plays'''
*''[[A Sunday Morning in the South]]'' (1925)
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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
==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}
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==Further reading==
* Harold Bloom, ed., ''Black American Women Poets and Dramatists'' (New York: Chelsea House, 1996).
* Countee Cullen, ed., ''[[Caroling Dusk]]: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets'' (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1927).
* Gloria T. Hull, ''Color, Sex, and Poetry: Three Women Writers of the Harlem Renaissance'' (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987).
* Judith Stephens, {{"'}}And Yet They Paused' and 'A Bill to Be Passed': Newly Recovered Lynching Dramas by Georgia Douglas Johnson", ''African American Review'' 33 (Autumn 1999): 519–22.
* Judith Stephens, ''The Plays of Georgia Douglas Johnson:From The New Negro Renaissance to the Civil Rights Movement'' (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2006)
*C. C. O'Brien, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4134418 ''Cosmopolitanism in Georgia Douglas Johnson's Anti-Lynching Literature''], ''African American Review'', Vol. 38, No. 4 (Winter 2004), pp. 571–587 (St. Louis University)
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[[Category:1880 births]]
[[Category:1966 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American women writers]]▼
[[Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights]]▼
[[Category:African-American dramatists and playwrights]]▼
[[Category:African-American poets]]
[[Category:American anti-lynching activists]]▼
[[Category:American salon-holders]]
[[Category:American women dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Harlem Renaissance]]
[[Category:Oberlin College alumni]]
[[Category:Writers from Atlanta]]
[[Category:Writers from Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:Writers from Washington, D.C.]]
▲[[Category:African-American dramatists and playwrights]]
▲[[Category:American women poets]]
▲[[Category:American women dramatists and playwrights]]
▲[[Category:Harlem Renaissance]]
▲[[Category:American anti-lynching activists]]
▲[[Category:20th-century American poets]]
▲[[Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights]]
▲[[Category:20th-century American women writers]]
▲[[Category:African-American women writers]]
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