James Weldon Johnson Publishes 'God's Trombones'

James Weldon Johnson—who had become the NAACP's executive secretary in 1920—published 'God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse' in 1927, with illustrations by Aaron Douglas. The collection reimagined African American preaching as formal poetry, bridging jazz, spirituality, and literary modernism. It was critically praised across racial lines and is among the defining literary achievements of the Harlem Renaissance.