The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is a novel by James Weldon Johnson, an American writer, and civil rights activist. The book presents a fictional account of the life and adventures of a young biracial man, referred to as the "Ex-Colored Man." The protagonist lives in post-Reconstruction era America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He has to come over a variety of experiences, including witnessing a lynching, where he has to "pass" as white to secure his safety and advancement, and other dangerous adventures.