UPDATE: BLACK TEEN MURDER RATES

Since the esteemed Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page was kind enough to "Friend" me today on Facebook, I felt duty-bound to check for recent writings of his that my pertain to the AskYourDaddy.blogspot.com conversation.



FLICKR/candylikeabar/ELTON SAULSBERRY


Given all of the Obama-driven news he's had to cover of late, I was surprised to find that Page, like me, was concerned about newly dispatched statistics regarding murder rates among young black males. (His observations on the crisis were posted a full week behind mine but, like I said, the man's been busy...)

And the song remains the same.

We can use more federal support for police on the street and other traditional law enforcement funding that was trimmed during the Bush administration, the Fox report suggests. We could also fight harder for tougher prosecution of crimes committed with a gun.

For the full article, CLICK HERE...

To offer your own thoughts, scroll down or comment below...

LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING

The Negro National Anthem

"Lift Every Voice and Sing"

by James Weldon Johnson

Originally written by Johnson for a presentation in celebration of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. This was originally performed in Jacksonville, Florida, by children. The popular title for this work is:


'THE NEGRO NATIONAL ANTHEM'

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 James Weldon Johnson June 17, 1871 - June 26, 1938

Timeline
1871 Born in Jacksonville, Florida, June 17
1894 Graduated from Atlanta University
1897 First black admitted to Florida bar
1899 Wrote "Lift Every Voice and Sing" with his brother
1906 US consul, Puerto Cabello, Venezuela
1909 US consul, Corinto, Nicaragua
1920 Appointed executive secretary of NAACP
1921 Wrote first novel: "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man"
1922 Collected poems of black poets in "The Book of American Negro Poetry."
1927 With brother Rosamond, published "God's Trombones"
1930 Became professor at Fisk University
1933 Wrote autobiography, "Along This Way"
1938 Died in automobile accident in Maine

source: africanamerican.com