How a Eurocentric Education Thwarted the Ambitions of a Talented Person of Colour in James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man Anonymous College

Under the hostility of the Jim Crow Laws and the ever-present threat of lynching in Post-Reconstruction America, the circumstances seemed dire for African-Americans who dreamed of a brighter future. Yet there were still a few whose names found their way into history, such as the great orator Booker T. Washington. Successful black Americans worried about turning their back on their own people, and no one was more tormented by these thoughts than people of mixed ancestry- such as the protagonist of James Weldon Johnson’s novel the Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.

Education was what allowed people of color such as the narrator and protagonist of the novel to climb the social ladder. It worked both as an equalizer and a tool of the oppressor to assimilate people of color and alienate them from their roots. In the case of Johnson’s ex-colored man who is unable to attend university after his tuition money is stolen, this indoctrination occurs at a very early stage in his childhood education and is what influences his decision to identity more with his European side. Although some may believe that racial identity is a personal choice that one is completely free to decide, the protagonist of the Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is...