Literature — Jacksonville — richardsonRichardson 1

The contributions oftheof the Negroes of this section to literature are not numer–ous, but in several cases, they are of vital importance.

Among the most noteworthy are T. Thomas Fortune, who spent his formative years in this district, and James Weldon Johnson, who wrote many poems, the major portion of one of his most important published books, and the scores to a number of light operas and musical comedies here.

Fortune, born in another part of the state, OctOctober 3, 1856, Marianna, Fla.Florida spent his boyhood in this city. Records reveal that even in his childhood years, his dream of a great newspaper was already taking form, and it was not long after he had moved to New York City that plans were being made for th ethe establishment of the greatest Negro weekly newspaper in the country at the time, . Fortune, in addition to his rise to the position as foremost Negro editor, also made notable achievements in the field of literature, politics, and other spheres of Negro life. Black &and White OctOctober 3, 1856, Marianna, Fla.Florida

Johnson was born in this city, near what is now the corner of Adams and Lee streetsStreets. His father was a native of Virginia, his mother and her parents from Nassau, Bahama Islands. Negro in Politics

In his boyhood, Johnson began writing poetry, sometimes drawing the praise of his intellectual father, more often receiving the condemnation and criticism of his father and his friends. Work along this line that he did after he had entered high school at Atlanta University, however, began to show distinct merit.

A few years after his graduation from Atlanta and during his principalship of the local Stanton High School, Johnson got the idea of establishing a Negro daily newspaper in this city. With the help of M. J.M.J. Christopher and Nathan W. Collier, present head of the Florida Normal Institute in St. Augustine, the resour–ces of the group were pooled and a small flat–bedflatbed press, driven by a gasoline mo-motor Literature Jacksonville richardsonRichardson 2 ter, was purchased, and thus began the first Negro daily newspaper in America. It enjoyed a life–spanlife span of eight months, when it finally died from non–supportnonsupport by the people whose news it conveyed in its columns.

The newspaper died in 1900, and Johnson began again applying himself to poetry and lyrics for songs. While his brother, John Rosamond, wrote the music for an operetta, James wrote the book and the verses, and the two of them took it to New York for production or sale a short time later.

The operetta met with instant acclaim in New York, but nobody would either purchase or produce it at that time. The Johnson'sJohnsons, however, did not taste total defeat in the venture;. beforeBefore the end oftheof the summer, every individual number in the opus had been sold to other theatrical productions, and two of them became popular songs of the day.

Back in Jacksonville after the operetta affair, James Johnson wrote a poem on Abraham Lincoln (or applying to Lincoln), which he called ''. Unknown to him, Rosamond set it to music, and since that time, the poem has appeared in and several anthologies, and the song has been sung by a Metropolitan Opera tenor, recorded for the phonograph by John McCormack and Paul Robeson (on Victor Red Seal Records), and played on several concerts by Fritz Kreisler.

Possibly the most far–reaching contribution that Johnson and Jacksonville gave to Negroes, however, came about as the result of a speaking engagement that Johnson had to fulfill on a program here. Johnson tried unsuccessfully to strike just the note he wanted in the writing of the address, despite several days of trying. Finally, he decided that perhaps he could do it in that medium by now so natural to him — verse. So he wrote, '"Lift Everyevery voice and sing, till earth and heaven —'.." The words began flowing onto his paper; — one stanza, two, then three. And with the customary ability to '"spot'" a song when he saw the words,