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Black
National Anthem
Lift
Every Voice and Sing
"Lift Every
Voice and Sing" was written by James Weldon Johnson and
J. Rosamond
Johnson. This song was written in 1900 for a celebration of Lincoln's birthday.
The choir at the Colored High School in Jacksonville, Florida performed
it. Its popularity spread and was commonly performed after that as a hymn
of solidarity. James Weldon Johnson said that it was not his intent to
write it as an anthem, he agreed that the song " not only epitomizes the
history of the race, and its present condition, but voices their hope for
the future."
Lift
every voice and sing
Till
earth and heaven ring,
Ring
with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let
our rejoicing rise
High
as the listening skies,
Let
it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing
a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing
a song full of the hope that the present has brought us,
Facing
the rising sun of our new day begun
Let
us march on till victory is won.
~~
Stony
the road we trod,
Bitter
the chastening rod,
Felt
in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet
with a steady beat,
Have
not our weary feet
Come
to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We
have come over a way that with tears have been watered,
We
have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out
from the gloomy past,
Till
now we stand at last
Where
the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
~~
God
of our weary years,
God
of our silent tears,
Thou
who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou
who has by Thy might
Led
us into the light,
Keep
us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest
our feet stray from the places, Our God, where we met Thee;
Lest,
our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed
beneath Thy hand,
May
we forever stand.
True
to our GOD,
True
to our native land
Sankofa
is the African principle of looking to the past to move on towards the
future. As African Americans, this is something we must do. It is essential
to our survival. James Weldon Johnson spoke of Sankofa before it even came
to our consciousness here in America. Take this lesson, look towards the
lessons of our past to move into the 21st century. We as a people have
lost substance along the way. We must regain our spiritual minds, and keep
our body temples pure. These are basic lessons which will ensure our success.
  
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