Black Is Beautiful : James Weldon Johnson

At the Grave of James Weldon Johnson

The middle section of "The Remedy" is the core of the poem, for the author. It is where the core meaning of the word and the historical reality of Nigger is expressed. And it is directly based and influenced by the famous poem "The Creation," by James Weldon Johnson.

Then God smiled,
And the light broke, 10
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said: That's good!

from "The Remedy":

The original Niggas—

now they were black,

beautiful, dark, deep black.

And when God looked down

He’d break out in a smile

as wide as Heaven's rivers are deep.

Here original harkens back to the Creation, both the poem and the act, and it makes the explicit statement, echoing the well-known phrase from the 1960's "Black is Beautiful."