[1] Run Little Chillun’ recounts the story of Jim Jones, son of a minister of the New Hope Baptist church.

He is seduced by Sulamai, a beautiful woman from the New Day Pilgrims, an Afro-Caribbean "cult" that (in Johnson's words) finds God manifest through nature, defines sin as "a sense of guilt inculcated through wrong education," and views the human body not as "an object for shame or concealment," but as the "branches of a beautiful, fruitful tree".

[1][4][5] Hatch and Hamalian called it "buoyant in spirit" and said it is considered one of the most successful musical dramas of the Harlem Renaissance.

[1] Kenneth Burke said the play allowed audiences to see how American Blacks had survived in a culture of oppression.

[1] According to Eileen Southern, "the outstanding quality of the play was its music, particularly in two spectacular scenes—a revival meeting and a pagan religious orgy.