Georgia Douglas Johnson

Georgia Blanche Douglas Camp Johnson, better known as Georgia Douglas Johnson (September 10, 1880 – May 14, 1966), was an African American poet, one of the earliest African-American female playwrights, and an important participant in the Harlem Renaissance.

Johnson was born in Atlanta to Laura Douglas and George Camp (her mother's last name is listed in other sources as Jackson). Her mother was of African and Native American descent, and her father was of African-American and English heritage.

Much of Johnson's childhood was spent in Rome, Georgia. She received her education in both Rome and Atlanta, where she excelled in reading, recitations and physical education. She also taught herself to play the violin, which developed into a lifelong love of music that appears in her plays, which make distinct use of sacred music.

Johnson graduated from Atlanta University's Normal School 1896. She taught school in Marietta, Georgia. She left her teaching career to pursue her interest in music in 1902, attending Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio. She wrote music from 1898 until 1959. After studying in Oberlin Johnson returned to Atlanta, where she became assistant principal in a public school.

On September 28, 1903, Johnson married Henry Lincoln Johnson, an Atlanta lawyer and prominent Republican party member. They had two sons, Henry Lincoln Johnson, Jr., and Peter Douglas Johnson (d. 1957). Johnson claimed her husband was not very supportive of her writing, preferring her be to a home-maker instead. Her husband's job as a lawyer forced them to live in Washington, D.C., away from the literary center in Harlem. He died in 1925 when she was aged 45 and she was left to take care of their sons, who were teenagers at the time. Even though her husband often criticized her career as a writer, she published two poems dedicated to him: "The Heart of a Woman" (1918) and "Bronze" (1922). Johnson lived in Washington for the last 50 years of her life. After her husband died, she struggled at first with some temporary jobs. As a gesture of appreciation for her husband's loyalty and service to the Republican party, President Calvin Coolidge appointed Johnson as the Commissioner of Conciliation in the Department of Labor.

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