Brothers by James Weldon Johnson
"Brothers," a poem by James Weldon Johnson, explores the harrowing theme of racial violence through the lens of a lynching. Written in iambic pentameter and structured in a question-and-answer format, the poem delves into a conversation between a man condemned to death and his executioners. The man, reflecting on his treatment and the dehumanization faced by African Americans, articulates that the "beastlike" nature attributed to him exists within all who have suffered systemic abuse while remaining subservient. Following his execution, the perpetrators are left to grapple with his final words, which reveal a grim irony: they are united in their shared humanity, yet profoundly disconnected by their actions. The poem challenges readers to confront the cyclical nature of violence and the moral implications of racism, highlighting how both the victim and the oppressors bear the weight of their shared complicity. Johnson's work serves as a poignant commentary on the complexities of brotherhood and the devastating impact of racial injustice.
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Brothers by James Weldon Johnson
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1916 (collected in Fifty Years, and Other Poems, 1917)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
“Brothers” is a poem of conventional meter, iambic pentameter, and conventional form, question and answer. The subject matter, however, is disturbing. A man to be lynched is asked why he has acted like a beast. He responds that his beastlike shape slumbers in all of those quiet African Americans who have for years taken abuse and discrimination while acting as loyal servants. After his body is burned, those who lynched him ponder his last “muttered” words: “’Brothers in spirits, brothers in deed are we.” The explanation they seek is in the title of the poem: They have committed a crime against him as he has committed a crime against them. Ironically, however, the man who is lynched committed one crime; the men who lynched him committed the crime of killing him and collectively creating the beast he had become.
Bibliography
Carroll, Anne. “Art, Literature, and the Harlem Renaissance: The Messages of God’s Trombones.” College Literature 29, no. 3 (Summer, 2002): 57-82.
Kostelanetz, Richard. Politics in the African American Novel: James Weldon Johnson, W. E. B. Du Bois, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.
Marren, Susan, and Robert Cochran. “Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man.” The Explicator 60, no. 3 (Spring, 2002): 147-149.
Rottenberg, Catherine. “Race and Ethnicity in The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man and The Rise of David Levinsky: The Performative Difference.” MELUS 29, nos. 3/4 (Fall/Winter, 2004): 307-321.
Ruotolo, Cristina L. “James Weldon Johnson and the Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Musician.” American Literature 72, no. 2 (June, 2000): 249-274.
Sacher, Jack. “James Weldon Johnson and the Poetry of God’s Trombones.” The Choral Journal 40, no. 1 (1999): 25.
Schulz, Jennifer L. “Restaging the Racial Contract: James Weldon Johnson’s Signatory Strategies.” American Literature 74, no. 1 (March, 2002): 31-58.