Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
Introduction + Context
Plot Summary
Detailed Summary & Analysis
Preface Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11
Themes
All Themes Racism and the Color Line Collective Progress and Individual Achievement Music, Emotion, and American Culture Secrecy, Purity, and Origins
Quotes
Characters
All Characters The Narrator or “Ex-Colored Man” The Narrator’s Mother The Narrator’s Father  “Shiny” The Millionaire The Narrator’s Wife / The Singer The Music Teacher The Violinist The Second Pullman Porter The Washington Physician John Brown “Singing Johnson”
Terms
All Terms Chopin Uncle Tom’s Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe “Toussaint L’Ouverture” (Lecture by Wendell Phillips) Beethoven’s “Sonata Pathétique” Atlanta University Pullman Porters Cuban rebels Cake-Walk Uncle Remus Stories Fisk Jubilee Songs Ragtime Minstrel “Slumming” “Darky” Havre Faust Grand Opera Jim Crow Howard University W.E.B. Du Bois Zion Lynching Eden Musée Fauré’s 13th Nocturne Hampton Institute Carnegie Hall Booker T. Washington
Symbols
All Symbols Clothing and Jewelry
Literary Devices
All Literary Devices Allusions Dialect Dramatic Irony Ethos Foil Foreshadowing Genre Imagery Irony Logos Metaphors Mood Motifs Pathos Personification Satire Setting Similes Situational Irony Style Tone
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Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

by

James Weldon Johnson

Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man Study Guide

It's easy to cite LitCharts for use in academic papers and reports.

MLA

Jennings, Rohan. "Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 19 Oct 2018. Web. 16 May 2025.

Chicago

Jennings, Rohan. "Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man." LitCharts LLC, October 19, 2018. Retrieved May 16, 2025. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/autobiography-of-an-ex-colored-man.

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