Johnson’s first collection of poems, The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems, established her as one of the notable African American woman poets of her time. The writer Zora Neale Hurston was a regular at the salon as well. The gathering became known as the S Street Salon, and prominent writers often debuted new works at the gatherings. On Saturday nights she hosted open houses attended by such Harlem Renaissance writers as Louis Alexander, Gwendolyn Bennett, Marita Bonner, Countee Cullen, Clarissa Scott Delaney, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Angelina Weld Grimke, Langston Hughes, Alain Locke, Kelly Miller, May Miller, Bruce Nugent, Willis Richardson, Anne Spencer, Jean Toomer, and E.
Johnson called her home at 1461 S Street Northwest in Washington the Half-Way House, in the spirit of her willingness to provide shelter for those in need.
She worked as a substitute teacher and a file clerk for the civil service, ultimately securing a position with the Department of Labor, where she worked for a number of years. After the death of her husband in 1925, Johnson was forced to support herself and her two sons through a series of temporary jobs. With her husband she moved in 1910 to Washington, D.C., where she remained for the rest of her life. She met her husband, Henry Lincoln Johnson, a lawyer and government employee, while at Atlanta University (later Clark Atlanta University). She also studied music at Oberlin Conservatory and at the Cleveland College of Music, both in Ohio. Johnson graduated from Atlanta University Normal College in 1896. Johnson was born in Atlanta on September 10, around the year 1877, to Laura Jackson and George Camp. Johnson’s four volumes of poetry, The Heart of a Woman (1918), Bronze (1922), An Autumn Love Cycle (1928), and Share My World (1962), established her as one of the most accomplished African American woman poets of the literary movement. Georgia Douglas Johnson was an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance, the literary and cultural movement that flourished in the predominantly Black Harlem neighborhood of New York City after World War I (1917-18).
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