Meet at the home of Anne Wiebe, 1 – 3 pm, for potluck lunch and discussion of The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, by James Weldon Johnson.
The author, the first Black executive secretary of the NAACP, offers a fictionalized account of his life and looks at the consequences of denying one’s heritage. James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) was a successful lawyer, educator, social reformer, songwriter, and critic. But it was as a poet and novelist that he achieved lasting fame. Among his most famous works, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man in many ways parallels Johnson’s own remarkable life. First published in 1912, the novel relates, through an anonymous narrator, events in the life of an American of mixed ethnicity whose exceptional abilities and ambiguous appearance allow him unusual social mobility — from the rural South to the urban North and eventually to Europe.
Austin Public Library has five copies on the shelves, e-books and audiobooks. Available on Amazon for $5.49. Book Club typically meets on the second Sunday of each month.