Countering the narrative that Langston Hughes was uninterested in religion, scholar and author Wallace Best describes the poet as an "avid and eclectic churchgoer" who returned time and again to the question, construction, and meaning of salvation in American religious history.
Wallace Best's book Langston's Salvation: American Religion and the Bard of Harlem (NYU Press, 2017) won the 2018 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the Textual Studies category, presented by the American Academy of Religion. He is professor of religion and African American studies at Princeton University.