The Annual Gathering at Five Acres: Celebrating the Legacy of James Weldon Johnson

On June 20, 2026, joy was in the air as more than 140 adults and children gathered at Five Acres in Great Barrington, Massachusetts for the James Weldon Johnson Foundation's annual gathering, nearly double the previous year's attendance. Ace the Horse led the "Five Acres March" around the property to the historic writing cabin, with children and adults singing alongside Foundation President Rufus E. Jones Jr. on guitar leading "We Shall Overcome," in the spirit of marching for rights, voices raised in song. The evening included a tour of Johnson's restored writing cabin, a silent auction, and a seated dinner on the grounds. Rufus E. Jones Jr., President of the James Weldon Johnson Foundation, and Jill R. Jones, Chairperson and Treasurer, welcomed a multigenerational gathering of artists, scholars, longtime supporters, and new friends of the Foundation.

The Writing Cabin is not merely associated with Johnson; it is a site of authorship. In an era defined by systemic racial exclusion, few African American cultural figures possessed privately owned, purpose-built spaces devoted to creative work. In this sense, the cabin stands within a small lineage that includes Frederick Douglass's Growlery and Anne Spencer's Edankraal. Designed in 1926 with the assistance of Berkshire architect and MIT graduate Joseph Arthur Vance, it is an exceptionally rare surviving structure in African American literary history.

Before the tour began, Rufus E. Jones Jr. led the assembled gathering in "Lift Every Voice and Sing," the hymn James Weldon Johnson wrote in 1900 and his brother J. Rosamond Johnson set to music. Jones accompanied the song on guitar, standing in the open field at Five Acres with the cabin behind him. Written originally for a celebration of Lincoln's birthday at a school in Jacksonville, Florida, the hymn has been carried for more than 125 years as an expression of dignity and perseverance. Sung on this land, before entering the space where Johnson worked, it was an act of deliberate historical continuity and exuberant joy.

Guests then moved through the cabin in small groups, taking in the restored interior and the stone chimney that has marked the structure since its construction. The experience of the physical space, modest in scale and precise in its purpose, gave concrete form to what the Foundation's preservation work means.

The evening's featured speaker was David W. Blight, Sterling Professor of History at Yale and Pulitzer Prize winner for his biography of Frederick Douglass. Blight is currently writing the biography of James Weldon Johnson. He read from his opening chapter. Among those present was Melanie Edwards, granddaughter of J. Rosamond Johnson, whose presence connected the evening directly to the family that gave "Lift Every Voice and Sing" to the world. James Weldon Johnson, poet, novelist, diplomat, lawyer, lyricist, and civil rights leader has long occupied a place in American history disproportionately small relative to his achievement. The work of the Foundation and Blight's forthcoming biography are together a signal that this is changing.

The Foundation's 2026 Fellows in the Arts were well represented, joining alumni from previous residency years. This year's cohort includes Don Battee, actor, writer, and producer whose work spans film, theatre, and performance across multiple continents; Clark Burnett, documentary filmmaker and associate producer at Ken Burns's Florentine Films, currently completing a PBS film on Reconstruction; Madison Leigh Carter, visual artist and photographer whose practice centers the spiritual and cultural intersections of the African diaspora; Clifford B. Chambliss III, photographer and fiber and stained glass artist whose work is held in the collections of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Beinecke Library; Norman Douglas, poet and performance artist who composes live verse on a manual typewriter in public spaces; Bettina Judd, writer, performer, and Associate Professor of African American Studies at Emory University; and Anita Norman, poet and producer.

The evening also included an award ceremony honoring two women whose lives reflect the values the Foundation exists to uphold. Matriarch Sharon Coon and Dr. A. Lenora Taitt-Magubane were each recognized with an award and honorarium.

Matriarch Sharon Coon is the founder of the Friends of the Brentwood Public Library in Jacksonville, Florida, the hometown of James Weldon Johnson and a community with deep roots in his family's legacy. A dedicated member of the James Weldon Johnson ASALH Jacksonville Chapter, Coon has worked for decades to enrich her community through literacy, education, and cultural engagement. The Friends of the Brentwood Public Library commemorated the 126th anniversary of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" earlier this year, bringing Jacksonville residents together to honor a song rooted in both local and national history.

Dr. A. Lenora Taitt-Magubane is a native New Yorker who became active in the civil rights movement while attending Spelman College in Atlanta, where she joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Committee on Appeal for Human Rights, the organizing body of the Atlanta Student Movement. In December 1961, she was among the eleven Albany, Georgia freedom riders who tested interstate travel, were arrested, and spent two weeks in the Albany City and County jails. She continues to work as an education and social work consultant and lecturer on the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Their presence at Five Acres was a reminder that the Foundation's work is sustained not only by scholars and artists but by those who have spent their lives in direct service to the communities and freedoms Johnson championed.

The silent auction drew strong participation. The Foundation is grateful to everyone who joined us at Five Acres, and to all who support this work.