James Weldon Johnson, St Peter Relates an Incident: Selected Poems

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St. Peter Relates an Incident: Selected Poems

(1935) is the last book of poetry published by James Weldon Johnson. The title poem, “St. Peter Relates an Incident of the Resurrection Day”, had been printed in a limited edition of just 200 copies in 1930. To it, Johnson added many of the poems printed in his 1917 collection

Fifty Years and Other Poems

, and four additional poems written since 1917.

The title poem was based on a 1927 incident involving the treatment of a group of African American gold-star mothers. When a group of American mothers whose sons had been killed in World War I was sent to France to view their sons’ graves, the group was divided by race. White mothers sailed on one ship, while the black mothers were assigned a ship that Johnson termed a “second-class

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Citation: Fleming, Robert E.. "St Peter Relates an Incident: Selected Poems". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 October 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2196, accessed 19 March 2024.]

2196 St Peter Relates an Incident: Selected Poems 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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