“Writing Reflections and Experiments - 'The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man' "

            It is apparent that in keeping with the theme of The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Manwritten by James Wheldon Johnson that certain things are consistent. The narrator is the main character in this novel, but he is unnamed. The reader might infer that he is mixed race but it is not immediately announced. His identity is a question of choice, and he passes freely through various identities and cultures throughout the book. Speaking Spanish with Cuban cigar makers, the narrator feels at home. He travels the world with a wealthy benefactor. In appearance, he could pass as white, and at times he lives among the African-American population. This trans-national or trans-racial narrator makes up not only the main appeal but the personal tension of the story written at a time when such things were considered taboo. 

            In his youth, the narrator soon asks his mother if he is a “nigger,” but she replies that he is not, and that he had some of “the best blood in the South” in him (Johnson 16). It falls short of a definite statement, but he has an African-American mother and a white father. 

            From the moment that his mother mentioned his father without identifying him, the narrator reflected on that event saying,

And so I have often lived through that hour, that day, that week in which was wrought the miracle of my transition from one world into another; for I did indeed pass into another world. From that time I looked out through other eyes, my thoughts were colored, my words dictated, my actions limited by one dominating, all pervading idea which constantly increased in force and weight until I finally realized in it a great, tangible fact. (Johnson 18-19)

 

            The narrator never announces his name because to do so would be an identifying marker at a time when being mixed in blood would have brought reproach from white folk. I feel that the title strongly tells the decision that the narrator will take. The narrative makes the speaker bi-racial, both in perspective and biology. His experience as “trans-national” permits him a view of the disadvantages of being black along with the advantages of being white. 

The narrator continually performs a kind of intermixing- culturally, geographically, sexually, racially, and aesthetically-in his travels throughout the United States and Europe. Even his roles as both outside observer and undetected performer blur the line between actor and spectator. He does not fully occupy whiteness or blackness, despite his elitist enactments of both categories. Instead, Johnson offers his readers a bifurcated view of race without ever fully committing his narrator to either role. (Morrisette 92)

 

In fact, he is drawn towards the reality of being white by this fact. What surprised me was not this decision itself because it was made more obvious by the title. What surprised me was the path this formed opinion had taken. It may have been that the writer’s advantages of being mixed but also able to pass as other races, would have been considered a rarity by certain readers of this era in American history. I think that at that time, this subject was mentioned in the most discreet groups of people. Where would such a reality have been accepted? Basically, nobody discussed this because folks were not prevalent. Yet they may have been more common than admitted to due to the undeserved shame that awareness of them might have caused. 

            He cites the disadvantages of being black early on with the insults and prejudices of school children. Later, while in Florida, the narrator is walking with a friend who explains the fact that black folk are considered lesser by whites so much so that the black families who do in fact accumulate wealth and sophistication are said to be “putting on airs.” (Johnson 77) The narrator also indicates that the well-to-do persons of color in Jacksonville were “few” (Johnson, 80). What had created disadvantages for these people was this repeated theme. Even if they managed to be successful, they were never accepted for who they were because of their skin color. 

            Towards the narrator’s climactic experiences at the end of the book, there are a few events, like a scene on a train where he is witness to a debate between car riders about the nature of the negro race. One of the riders says that the Southern whites “despise the Negro as a race, and will do nothing to aid in his elevation as such." In between this debate and a murder, which radically affects the narrator, is a negro church service with worship and a sermon focused on liberation. 

Following this is a scene where an African-American is going to be lynched, but the raw brutality of the crowd calls for the man to be burned alive. (Johnson 183) This contributing factor is not where the narrator makes his final decision, but it leads up to it. The narrator is struck and shocked by this event, which is a huge factor in his decision. It is the climax of the book’s action leading to then more positive reasons why he is relinquishing his black heritage. The narrator says,

A great wave of humiliation and shame swept over me. Shame that I belonged to a race that could be so dealt with; and shame for my country, that it, the great example of democracy to the world, should be the only civilized, if not the only state on earth, where a human being would be burned alive. My heart turned bitter within me…Whenever I hear protests from the South that it should be left alone to deal with the Negro question, my thoughts go back to that scene of brutality and savagery. (Johnson 184)

The murder of this individual is the startling consequence of racism that levels into a more settled conclusion which the narrator discovers when he falls in love with a beautiful white girl in the descending action of the final chapters. 

            However, there is a prior point when the narrator had participated in a conversation with his wealthy benefactor. It reverberates now in a more pragmatic sense. That conversation was his first positive reason for changing his identity. The benefactor, a wealthy business man, took him to see the world, and the narrator was experiencing what it was like in other nations of the world to be accepted and esteemed as an equal. Feeling the appreciation and affirmation of his talents and abilities, he felt a sense of reward. It led him to reflect more seriously. No one told him, “Reflect more seriously!" However, initially deciding to return to the States to be a leader and ambassador for his race, he changed his decision. However, that ambition had reflected his innermost desires throughout the book. The benefactor struck at what perhaps only later resonated with him. His benefactor indicated, “This idea you have of making a Negro out of yourself is nothing more than a sentiment; and you do not realize the fearful import of what you intend to do. What kind of a Negro would you make now, especially in the South?” (Johnson 142). Wham! He says that in the past it might have been possible, but now that he has seen the world, to do so would make him miserable. 

            The benefactor’s reasoning resonates more with the narrator now after his naivety is retracted. Things are not so obvious. He sees after time elapses that life as a “negro” would not be so easy. What really changes his opinion is his future wife’s accepting him in the very end. This later event marks the second positive reason. When they fall for each other and overcome this issue for themselves, his mind is made up to live as a white man for the remainder of his life. 

Johnson presents the narrator as a man who is always tempted but never announces his identity. Despite his inner turmoil over his identity, readers at the time might have been very understanding of that choice, However, perhaps the point of the book is not to sympathize so much as to highlight the difference in appearances as either white or black. His decision is very relatable to that post war audience. Even when his wife dies, he remains white for the sake of his children’s lives and successes. 

I would not be so impacted by this decision itself, which is intimated by the book’s title, so much as the journey he took to come to his conclusion. I was not expecting so many twists and turns. It was very nuanced and relevant I think for the time. To be at peace was his goal, but whether he himself accomplished this is another matter. Du Bois’ book is mentioned also on page 165, which is interesting because of Du Bois’ historic and passionate pleas for equal rights.

However, the narrator’s experience and decisions are held in tension. Thomas Morgan highlights that fact. He shows that the narrator ironically separates himself both from the locale and the principles to which he aspired. He writes, 

…the narrator in Johnson's text consciously abandons the pastoral South in his move to the North, abandoning both the physical space and the representational logic it uses to depict black identity. This decision is predicated upon the narrator's ability to pass-or, more particularly, his decision to "let the world take me for what it would" (Morgan, 222)

 

The book reads like an actual life though it is fictional. The tension that the unnamed narrator feels over his situation is palpable at times. The one time that he announces his identity to his future wife takes time for her to accept.  As a devout Christian, I know that the Bible says in Acts 17:26 says that “He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth…” With that contrast to racism in mind, it is very common despite this truth to experience tense debates over racism because of the state of the world throughout history. However, the inner debate with which the narrator wrestles reads like a festering wound because he never feels completely at peace about it. Perhaps it was scared over, but certain events irritate it much like atmospheric pressure does to now healed joints and ligaments. By the end of the novel, he is never truly rid of the race question. It is the atmosphere he breathes, and it is the inner voice he disavows. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Johnson, James Weldon. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. Boston: Sherman, French & Company. 1912.

Morgan, Thomas L. “The City as Refuge: Constructing Urban Blackness in Paul Laurence Dunbar’s ‘The Sport of the Gods’ and James Weldon Johnson’s ‘The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.’” African American Review, 2004, JSTOR Journals, Accessed March 14, 2025.

Morrissette, Noelle. New Perspectives on James Weldon Johnson’s ‘The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.’ E-book, EBSCOhost Academic Collection, 2017.