James Weldon Johnson Becomes First Black NAACP Executive Secretary

In 1920, James Weldon Johnson became the executive secretary of the NAACP—the first African American to hold that position. Over the next decade, Johnson led the NAACP's campaigns against lynching, directed the lobbying effort for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, and organized the NAACP's expansion to hundreds of local chapters. Simultaneously a poet, novelist, and diplomat, Johnson embodied the interconnection of art and activism that defined the Harlem Renaissance.