— Finally, something worth putting your book down for! Authors and readers from around the country will gather at James Weldon Johnson Park on Saturday, January 25th for the JAX Urban Book Festival.

In 2016, Jill and Rufus formed the James Weldon Johnson Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to advancing Johnson's remarkable legacy through both education and an artist-in-residence program.

James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938), American Writer and Civil Rights Activist, seated Portrait, Doris Ulmann, 1925.

The hymn’s origins trace back to a segregated school in Jacksonville, Florida, led by activist and author James Weldon Johnson, according to the NAACP.