SOURCE: "The Composition of James Weldon Johnson's 'Fifty Years,'" in American Poetry, Vol. 4, No. 2, Winter, 1987, pp. 51-56.

In the following essay, Fleming suggests that Johnson significantly revised his poem 'Fifty Years ' prior to its publication in order to make it more acceptable to white audiences.

James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) has frequently been recognized as the sort of black writer and leader who achieved a great deal by working within the American legal and political system. Educated at Atlanta University, Johnson taught in an all-black rural elementary school and in a black high school and college, practiced law in Florida, wrote for black newspapers and magazines, and worked for his race as secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Always a political realist, he campaigned among black voters for the election of Theodore Roosevelt, and after Roosevelt's election he gladly accepted diplomatic appointments...