Rosamond took to the road singing with John W. After his Stanton School education, he traveled to Boston to attend the New England Conservatory of Music. As a very small boy he demonstrated outstanding talent at the keyboard. John Rosamond Johnson was born on August 11, 1873.
James Weldon then decided to become an attorney he taught himself law, and became the first African-American ever to be admitted to the Florida bar. In 1895, as a sideline he founded and edited the nation’s first black daily newspaper- The Daily American. After James Weldon’s graduation from the college, he returned to Florida and became superintendent of the Stanton School. He received his education at the Stanton School, and then attended Atlanta University. As a child he studied both piano and guitar, and learned how to read and write music. James Weldon Johnson came into the world first, on June 17, 1871. It was into this setting that their two remarkably talented and determined sons were born. The father was a minister, and the mother, Helen, was Florida’s first black female schoolteacher. The James Johnson family of Jacksonville, Florida, was exceptional in many ways: They were middle class, educated, and had been free since before the Civil War.
