First and foremost a leading black sociologist, Charles S. Johnson's primary contribution to the literary arena was his editorship of one of black America's most important historical publications, Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life. It was in this position that Johnson played a major role in the development of black writers, poets, and artists during the 1920s and had a substantial influence on the dissemination of information by and about black Americans.

A stern advocate of racial equality, Johnson advocated "the careful marshalling of scientific discussion of problems related to blacks and to race relations." In the course of his lifetime, which spanned sixty-three years, Johnson was sociologist, editor, writer, race-relations expert, research director, first black president of Fisk University, and a member of numerous committees, commissions, and foundation boards. In all of these positions he sought to use research and scholarship to upgrade the status of blacks...