Grace Nail Johnson
American civil rights activist and art patron (1885–1976)
Grace Nail Johnson (February 27, 1885 – November 1, 1976) was an African-American civil rights activist and patron of the arts associated with the Harlem Renaissance. She is known for her involvement with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Heterodoxy Club, and many other African-American and feminist organizations. Johnson also supported and promoted African-American children's literature.
Early life and family
Grace Elizabeth Nail was born on February 27, 1885, in New London, Connecticut. She was the second child of the wealthy real estate developer and civil rights activist John Bennett Nail (1853–1942) and Mary Frances Robinson (1858–1923). By the time Grace was born, the Nails had already become prominent members of the African-American elite of New York City. While the family was very involved with the Harlem community, their residence was in Brooklyn, where Grace would live for all her early life.
The Nail family business began with a restaurant and hotel in New York City on Sixth Avenue which they called "Nail Brothers". They later opened another similar business in Washington D.C. which was known as "The Shakespeare House." Eventually, the Nails' business ventures expanded into real estate. Their real estate investments did well in the early twentieth century and by the time John Bennett Nail died, they owned five apartment complexes in Harlem.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18330960. VIAF identifies the subject as 71335839. The Library of Congress control number is nr2003027413. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1885, 1976, 1853 and 1942.
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This entry incorporates text from “Grace Nail Johnson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.