“To America”: A 4th of July Meditation on James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938)

James Weldon Johnson’s most famous work, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is often heralded as the ‘Black National Anthem.’

His brief poem, “To America” is not so widely discussed. The design strikes me as a prototype for a complete poem, better conveyed by Langston Hughes’ ‘Harlem, Dream Deferred.’

TO AMERICA
How would you have us, as we are?
Or sinking ‘neath the load we bear?
Our eyes fixed forward on a star?
Or gazing empty at despair?

Rising or falling? Men or things?
With dragging pace or footsteps fleet?
Strong, willing sinews in your wings?
Or tightening chains about your feet?

Source: Poets.org

Our friends at Project Gutenberg published Johnson’s autobiography, “The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man,” an assortment of essays, meditations, observations, and even overheard conversations. More ‘journal’ than ‘autobiography.’

Johnson eschews explicit dates in his autobiography, so pinning down precisely which poems were influenced by which observations would require considerable research.

Did he write “To America” after witnessing the lynching referred to in Chapter 10? (Almost certainly, yes…)

What to make of an autobiography that exults the ‘slave spirituals’ — the power of ‘call and answer’ classics like “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” — then bare paragraphs later describes in detail lynch mob horrors. “Have you ever witnessed the transformation of human beings into savage beasts? Nothing can be more terrible.”

Yet the author of one of the most powerful anthems regarded himself at times as “a coward, a deserter,” and concludes his autobiography with melancholy ambivalence.

As a member of Gen X, the answer I would offer to Johnson’s rhetorical question posed in “To America” would be something like this:

Come as you are, as you were,
As you still want to be
As a friend, share the load,
Shrug it off, like the old enemy
Choice is yours, let’s stay late
Take our rest, crafting our memories.

Perhaps if Kurt Cobain had studied old spirituals so beloved by Johnson, he might have found some extra power to grapple with overwhelming malaise.