Hard to believe that this book isn't more widely read. ( )

Very well-crafted, and a fascinating look at the process of living and identifying as a different race. ( )

The preface of this book is very important. If you want to really know about race in America, you should read this book. Despite the fact that it was written long ago, we still need to be aware of our racial history. American should be color or race blind if we are to survive. No race should receive the treatment described in this book.

FROM AMAZON: First published in 1912, The Autobiography of an Ex–Colored Man is the story of an unnamed, light-skinned, biracial narrator born in a small Georgia town during the years following the Civil War. He knows nothing about race—until he and his Black mother move to Connecticut and an episode at his school forces her to explain things to him.

As the narrator grows up, he pursues a higher education and begins traveling to cities like New York and Paris. He develops desires and ambitions, but everything changes when he returns to the South and witnesses the lynching of a Black man. The horror of the scene persuades him to live as white, but this decision comes at a cost . . .

The Autobiography of an Ex–Colored Man covered issues and themes not usually seen in the literature of its day. It offered a critical examination of race in society—as well as a look into Black society most white readers were unfamiliar with at the time. ( )

I will say that James Weldon Johnson really accomplished what he hoped for in this novel. I really felt like I was reading an actual autobiography. A very interesting story. The lack of contractions made the language feel awkward at times. A good reader, but the writing a bit stilted. I think that made it feel more like the real story of a man's life, a man who wasn't a writer. Bill Andrew Quinn has a wonderful melodious voice, a pleasure to listen to. ( )

The slimness of this novel belies the breadth and depth of its exploration of the racial and social divide in post-Reconstruction America.

We are whisked through the protagonist's relatively fortunate life, where his "Italian" complexion allows him access to white privilege while his upbringing allows him to also maintain an access to Black culture and community. Through this back-and-forth across the two cultures, he presents his experiences life as a Black-but-passing-for-white man in and outside of America.

The title forever hangs at the back of the reader's mind through the protagonist's various travels. At what point will he seek the "easy" way out? There are some essay-ish moments which the novel is clearly built around on to build up to the inevitable titular moment. But instead of being clunky or out-of-place I found them remarkable in how the author does not shy away from presenting opposing arguments as well as exposing the hypocrisy of both sides. Overall it feels like the academic brother of the more psychological and emotionally-charged Passing by Nella Larsen. ( )

This isn’t the usual historical biography from a black man. He’s able to pass as black or white and has a privileged upbringing. He has a unique perspective of just being a man during the times of segregation. ( )

This isn’t the usual historical biography from a black man. He’s able to pass as black or white and has a privileged upbringing. He has a unique perspective of just being a man during the times of segregation. ( )

Fascinating novel in the manner of traditional confessions or intellectual memoirs. I was struck by the emotional clarity and the sense that some things really hadn't changed at all since Weldon wrote this. Especially applicable to the difference in Northern and Southern White ideas about African-Americans. ( )

A free audio from Audio sync summer program. This is fiction written as autobiography where a young man who didn't know he was black because he was so light skinned until he was confronted with the truth as student. He was a smart young man with plans to attend college and then his mother died. His dream was gone and he took to drifting around the south where he learned about being black. Then he met a millionaire who took good care of him (very much like the good slave owner) and he traveled to Europe with him. This really is a book that looks at racism in the early 1900s. It reminds me of another book that I read that was written in this time which also reads like a sociology book of the time. In the end, after witnessing a lynching, the man decides to live as white. The last is called passing. The man decides to pass as white and thereby he gives up his gifted talent as a black musician and lives a life of mediocrity. ( )

What an extraordinary novel! It's difficult to believe such a short work can contain so much. First there is the story itself, which includes among other things a detailed and colorful explanation of the Cakewalk, the story of the rise of Ragtime, the beauty of the music of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, a rigorous defense of Gospel singing as culturally significant, an explanation of the inner workings of a cigar factory, a celebration of Uncle Remus stories before they were sullied by Walt Disney, and scenes describing gambling, fetishization of blacks by whites, and what it's like to travel overnight in the laundry closet of a Pullman car...amazing. Interlaced throughout the liveliness of the tale are ruminations about race that feel contemporary. By making his protagonist able to 'pass' for white Johnson creates a character who can move into and out of black or white culture at will. Johnson thus gives the character the perception and insight of an outsider, someone who observes and records without feeling compelled to judge. The ending is wrenching, when the protagonist realizes he has sacrificed his dreams and his ambitions and his talents, by choosing the safety and prosperity of living as a white man: "I have chosen the lesser part, that I have sold my birthright for a mess of pottage." ( )

A fine book, more notable for it's place as a pioneering work in African American literature than any literary qualities. It interests me as an inversion of the more common narrative in which a black protagonists opts for a life of public excellence in service to the race, rather than a life of more quiet personal fulfillment. In this way, it reminds me of books like the Damnation of Theron Ware or Main Street, and the "confession" of a black man who chooses to pass for white gives the novel an easily accessible layer of social critique. ( )

This is an amazing, very American story of an educated, fortunate boy, the son of a black woman and a white man, who comes to love listening to and playing music. His absent father loves him and his mother and provides much. Growing up in Connecticut, believing he is white; he is soon stunned to learn he is considered black by society. He discusses race with his mother and others. He is intelligent and well-read, and wishing to portray black Americans in a positive light, determines he will find some meaningful work after college.

But his plans to attend Atlanta University fall apart after he is robbed; his life now takes a different turn. He finds various jobs, makes money and friends easily, gambles, winning and losing, drinks but never too much. He impresses a wealthy patron with his music, and travels through Europe with him.

Maturity sets in as he realizes that this play life has kept him from his plans for serious work. Returning to the US he commits himself anew to his plan to gather information about race relations by traveling through the South and seeing how blacks live first hand. His reactions and commentary are honest, smart but surprisingly brutal.

After seeing a horrendous, egregious event he is mortified by the state of the country, and gives up his life’s plans, changing to a totally different course.

Good, strong read. ( )

I'm pretty sure the only other time I read this novel was back in high school as required reading. Even as its impression on me this time has been enhanced by increased experience and whatnot, this book still struck me in the past as "one of the saddest books I've ever read."

Not because it's depressing at every turn, which it isn't. There are a few interesting friendships, and various parts of the narrative shine with historical Black culture, including the cakewalks and especially the celebration of ragtime.

But the hard parts were more profound to me this time, in a way, including the profundity of pain. I also took more time to think about the characters' different views, including the protagonist's.

This novel is a call to think. To pause, to listen, and to think. And the call is still relevant now, as it was back when the book was published (anonymously, the first time) over a century ago.

This time after I finished it, I cried. Yet, one of the saddest books I've ever read also gives me hope in regard to progress, and it makes me that much more grateful and determined to be who I am.

Because I can. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2013566.html

Despite the title, this is actually a novel whose unnamed narrator, a light-skinned African-American of the late 19th/ early 20th century, undergoes various travails including whether to abandon his career as a (black) musician and settle down for a dull life in the (white) middle class. I see Wikipedia suggesting that the author intended it as an ironic reflection on the first-person narratives of the day, so I guess I may not have the full context. It didn't really work for me as a novel; too many incidents which though interesting in their own right didn't really add up to a narrative structure. The anonymity of the narrator distanced me further from the story. Still, it's short. ( )

"It's no disgrace to be black, but it's often very inconvenient." (p72)

I believe that best describes this book and its resolution; how life existed after the Civil War, & in this time remains so for many. ( )

The fictionalized story of a fair-skinned colored man who must decide whether he wants to live life as a black man, or leave everything and pass as white. ( )

While this novel in the form of a first person narrative by James Weldon Johnson was published in the early 1900s, it has plenty to say on the subject of race and identity that speaks directly to the contemporary reader.

While this novel in the form of a first person narrative by James Weldon Johnson was published in the early 1900s, it has plenty to say on the subject of race and identity that speaks directly to the contemporary reader.

I had to keep reminding myself that The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson was actually a novel. It was realistic, and it was engaging and entertaining at the same time. Even more, it has a place in history alongside true-life narratives as an account of what some African-Americans may have felt in the early decades of the 1900s: enslaved in a world that catered to whites.

More on my blog

While this novel in the form of a first person narrative by James Weldon Johnson was published in the early 1900s, it has plenty to say on the subject of race and identity that speaks directly to the contemporary reader. ( )

Remarkable coverage of issues in one novel, surprising emphasis on music. ( )

This novel holds up extremely well. ( )

Review pending ( )

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