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How did James Weldon Johnson use Black sermon traditions in God’s Trombones?

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The Weary Blues cover — Harlem Renaissance Dust jacket designed by the Mexican illustrator and writer Miguel Covarrubias for Langston Hughes's *The Weary Blues* (1926), a book of experimental poetry.

In God’s Trombones (1927), James Weldon Johnson utilized the traditional Black preaching style of the rural South to create what he termed an "art-governed expression" of the oral tradition.123

Rather than relying on the stereotypical dialectal transcriptions that had previously characterized much literature attempting to depict African American speech, Johnson employed free-verse poetic forms modeled directly on the rhythmic and oratorical techniques of Black preachers. By drawing on the biblical poetry and fire-and-brimstone oratory of his own Christian upbringing, he successfully captured the raw power and emotional resonance of the folk sermon tradition. This approach allowed him to honor the cultural heritage of the "folk" while elevating the material through a sophisticated, artistic literary structure.123