So Much History

FENTON JOHNSON

Poet, essayist, author of short stories, editor, and educator, Fenton Johnson was born on May 7, 1888, in Chicago, Illinois. Johnson did not initially plan to embark on a writing career, and certainly not a career in poetry. Throughout his childhood, Johnson intended to become a member of the clergy. Johnson grew up in Chicago, and he received his secondary education at various public schools in the city, including Englewood High School and Wendell Phillips High School. Fenton Johnson published his first poem at the age of twelve. Johnson was educated at the University of Chicago,  Northwestern University, and Columbia University.

Following school, Fenton worked as a messenger and in the post office before he began to teach English at the State University of Louisville (SUL), which was a private, Black, Baptist-owned institution in Kentucky. He taught there from 1910 to 1911, and returned to Chicago in 1911 to concentrate on his writing career. In 1913, Johnson published his first volume of poetry, “A Little Dreaming.” The collection was a self-published work, along with his next two collections, “Visions of the Dusk” (1915) and “Songs of the Soil” (1916).

Earlier, in 1909, Johnson appears to have submitted for publication a form of realistic-fiction diary, titled “A Wild Plaint“, written in the name of a character, Aubrey Gray. Between the release of his first and second collection of poetry, Johnson moved to New York, where he attended the Pulitzer School of Journalism with the financial support of a benefactor. Following the release of his third book of poetry, Johnson moved back to Chicago, where he became one of the founding editors of “The Champion in 1916.” The Champion was formed in conjunction with Henry Binga Dismond, his cousin.

A year later Dismond would marry, editor, newscaster, publicist, public health official, author and community leader Gerri (Geraldyn) Hodges. The publication focused on Black achievements and was published monthly. Two years after founding The Champion, in 1918, Johnson went on to found “The Favorite Magazine”, subtitled “The World’s Greatest Monthly“. Around this time Johnson’s short stories were also being published in The Crisis. In addition to the short stories published in The Crisis, Johnson published his own collection of short stories entitled “Tales of Darkest America in 1920.“

Johnson’s early work contains poems written in Black dialect and conventional English. His material reveals the influence of traditional spirituals and the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar. Johnson’s poems are a significant bridge between the work turn of the century authors and the writers that would constitute the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and 30s. His later poems reveal a determination yet pessimism related to the urban blues of the same period. Johnson’s books of poetry include “A Little Dreaming“, “Visions of the Dusk” and “Songs of the Soil“. One of his most famous poems, “Tired“, was published in The Book of American Negro Poetry in 1922, among other poems of his.

While “Tired” has been frequently anthologized, Johnson’s earlier poems were made in more “conventional modes”, as found in his first book, “A Little Dreaming.” The collection considered a wide range of topics, from a poem on Paul Laurence Dunbar, entitled “Dunbar“, to medieval themes such as in “Lancelot’s Defiance“. The poetry of Fenton Johnson has often been seen by critics to be characterized by great irony and a kind of hopelessness resulting from an embattled Black American experience.

In addition to his poetry, editing, and essay writing, Johnson also worked as a playwright. His first play was performed in a Chicago theater when he was just nineteen. In 1925, his play entitled The Cabaret Girl was performed at the Shadow Theatre in Chicago, the only known title of his performed plays. In the 1930s, Johnson worked for the Federal Writers’ Project, which was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in Chicago. Directed by Arna Bontemps, part of the Federal Writers’ Project focused on writing about the black experience in Illinois. Bontemps later acted as Johnson’s literary executor.

Johnson’s poetry is characterized by its directness and emotional honesty. He employed free verse, eschewing traditional rhyme schemes and structures, to capture the rhythms of vernacular speech and convey the raw experiences of Black life. His use of imagery, often drawn from nature and the rural South, provided a grounding for his exploration of complex themes. While Johnson shared the Harlem Renaissance’s focus on celebrating Black culture and heritage, his work also delved into darker, more melancholic aspects of the African American experience.