The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

James Weldon Johnson's trailblazing novel on passing and racial ambiguity, freshly repackaged for the Union Square & Co. Signature Editions line.

A coming-of-age tale about a young biracial man whose light skin allows him to "pass' for white at the turn of 20th century America. From a cigar factory in Jacksonville to an elite gambling club in New York, the unnamed narrator describes his remarkable journey through the strata of Black and white society, rubbing elbows with European aristocrats and ragtime musicians alike. Yet through it all, he struggles to forge an identity in a world that tells him he doesn't belong. Ultimately, he discovers that the practice of passing brings little more than a ruinous self-denial.