Just finished reading “The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man” by James Weldon Johnson. And I am completely blown away by the historical anonymously published 1912 text, that I prefer to give a quick and vague summary followed by a few quotes. Hopefully this encourages some to read it:

An African American man that passes as white in post Civil War America travels through the Northern and Southern United States, and Europe.

Here are some passages, which stand out to me:

“It is a struggle; for though the black man fights passively, he nevertheless fights; and his passive resistance is more effective at present than active resistance could possibly be. He bears the fury of the storm as does the willow tree.” (52)

“If the Anglo-Saxon is the source of everything good and great in the human race from the beginning, why wasn’t the German forest the birthplace of civilization, rather than the valley of the Nile.” (111)

“All the while I understood that it was not discouragement or fear or search for a larger field of action and opportunity that was driving me out of the Negro race. I knew that it was shame, unbearable shame. Shame at being identified with a people that could with impunity be treated worse than animals. For certainly the law would restrain and punish the malicious burning alive of animals.” (130)

Mic drop.