Helene Johnson

Helene Johnson (July 7, 1906 – July 7, 1995) was an African-American poet during the Harlem Renaissance.

She is remembered today for her poetry that captures both the challenges and the excitement of this era during her short-lived career.

Helen (Helene) Johnson was born on July 7, 1906, to Ella Benson and George William Johnson in Boston, Massachusetts.

Her mother, Ella Benson, is categorized as a domestic worker.

Her father, George William, left soon after her birth and there is minimal information about him.

She was raised by her mother and her grandfather, Benjamin Benson.

Her mother was the child of former slaves.

When growing up, Johnson was raised in a town near Boston that was named Brookline.

Johnson was named after her maternal grandmother, Helen Pease Benson, who, along with her maternal grandfather, Benjamin Benson, was born into slavery in Camden, South Carolina.

The pair produced three daughters together, Ella (Helene's mother), Minnie, and Rachel.

During her formidable years, Johnson lived with her two aunts, Minnie and Rachel, who gave her the nickname Helene, even though her birth name was Helen.

Johnson was raised with her cousin and future Harlem Renaissance novelist writer, Dorothy West, in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Dorothy West was also known for writing short stories.

The two spent summers together in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts.

Helene received her high school education at the Boston Girls' Latin School, which was considered an exceptional public school for adolescents to attend at the time.

After high school, Johnson attended both Boston University and Columbia University but did not successfully graduate from either.

Johnson published several periodicals throughout the 1920s and early 1930s when she was 19 years old.

During this time, she published over thirty different pieces of poetry in many different magazines.

These magazines typically were African-American known, and included the NAACP's The Crisis, edited by W.E.B. DuBois.

She gained most of her notoriety from her work published in the journal of the National Urban League, Opportunity, which was a leading platform that showcased the talents of African-American artists.

In 1925, Johnson collected multiple honorable mentions in a poetry contest organized by Opportunity. It was also in 1925 that Johnson received her first poetry award in the National Urban League's Inaugural Contest.

In 1926, six of her poems were published by Opportunity.

Her poetry also appears in the first, and only, issue of Fire!!, a magazine edited by Wallace Thurman, Langston Hughes, and Richard Bruce Nugent.

Because of this recognition, many renowned poets of the time began recognizing her potential and considered her to be outstanding for her age.

These awarded poets include Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, and others.

After the year 1929, Johnson left New York, New York, and returned to Boston.

In 1933, Johnson married William Warner Hubbell III.

Together, they had one child, whom they named Abigail.

Years after the birth of her child, it is understood that Helene and her husband William divorced.

Although it is known that a divorce occurred from sources close to the pair, there is no legal documentation of this occurring.

Helene never remarried.

After her move to Boston where these family issues occurred, she did not publish any more poetry.

Helene made this decision regardless of her previous awards and recognition and decided to stop writing for the public completely.

Many of Johnson's readers were confused by her disappearance, but Johnson never explained the reason she made this decision.

Although she was well known for the poetry that she and already produced, she left Boston and resettled down in Manhattan, in New York City, New York, and worked jobs that were unrelated to poetry.

Along with ending her formal career in poetry, she also began staying away from all media, even if it was praise.

She made sure to stay away from cameras and curious media outlets.

However, even out of the eye of the public, Johnson continued to write, and eventually, her work appeared in anthologies.

After a long and quiet life, Helene Johnson died on July 6, 1995 in Manhattan at the age of 89.

The start of Johnson's literary career began when she became affiliated with the Saturday Evening Quill Club, where she claimed first prize in a short story competition sponsored by the Boston Chronicle.