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.

[citation needed] Grace Nail Johnson was involved in the Harlem Renaissance as a hostess, mentor, teacher and activist in various civil rights causes.

[1][2][3] Some significant organizations she worked in were the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Anti-Lynching Crusaders, the Circle for Negro Relief, the Heterodoxy Club and the American Women's Voluntary Services.

[12] Even though Grace was the only African-American member of the Heterodoxy Club, the feminist ideology of the group has been cited as an influence of several leaders of the Harlem Renaissance, such as W.E.B.

[15] Later during World War II, Johnson publicly resigned from the New York committee of the American Women's Voluntary Services because of racial discrimination she and others experienced in their work projects.

"[17] In addition to being a political activist, Johnson was also part of a network of prominent Harlem women who fostered the development of African-American children's literature.

[18] This connection began with the patronage her parents gave to Harlem artists and deepened with her marriage to James Weldon Johnson, a writer himself.

Of the many literature circles she participated in, one group that focused entirely on children's fiction included herself, Langston Hughes, Ellen Tarry, and Charlemae Hill Rollins.

[18] Whereas they found issues with the book's portrayal of a young African-American boy, she wrote that it "fits the time" and that "James Weldon Johnson would have loved The Snowy Day".

[18] The outcry against The Snowy Day extended beyond the private circle and into the newspapers of Harlem, making Johnson's defense of the book all the more unique.

[1] James Weldon Johnson later regained contact with her and then courted her through correspondence while he was working as the United States consul to Venezuela, and later Nicaragua.

[1] The couple then moved to Corinto, Nicaragua, where they lived for the first years of their marriage, while James Weldon Johnson continued to work as the U.S. consul.

[1] Following the end of James Weldon Johnson's career as a consul, they eventually resettled back in New York City where they both again became involved in the Harlem Renaissance.

[20] As the Nail family began to experience hard times, James Weldon Johnson's involvement in the Harlem Renaissance and civil rights movements helped them secure positions within the NAACP.

[21] The Johnsons were somewhat unlike other activist members of the Harlem elite in that they also participated in the bohemian social clubs which were prominent in Greenwich Village in the 1920s.

[11] Her husband's involvement with New York Bohemia largely revolved around the red-light district in Tenderloin, Manhattan which he referred to as the center for "colored bohemians".

Throughout her life, Grace Nail Johnson kept a record of newspaper clippings that mentioned herself, her husband, their work, or events significant to the history of Harlem.

[26] In 1941, she worked with Carl Van Vechten to create the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of American Negro Arts and Letters at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University.