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

Obama: 'Say My Name!'

The winds of change don't smell so great these days.
Thank goodness for another whiff of President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama's spunk in today's headlines.
Obama spoke plainly to a reporter, saying that, of course, his middle name would be stated out loud when he takes the Oath of Office. He's joked before about the middle name's baggage, but how better to show the world the weight of his authentic convictions?

VIDEO: YOUTUBE

(FUNNY!!! AS I'M WRITING THIS WOLFE BLITZER POINTS OUT THAT THE MIDDLE NAME OF OBAMA'S CHIEF OF STAFF IS....GET THIS...ISRAEL.)

Anyway...whether the given names we bear are honored or not, notorious or not, changed or not, mispronounced or not, embraced personally or not, they're OUR NAMES!

The point of this existence is to make them mean something. Not, selfishly for you. Dummy. For those who will or won't claim being named after you based on how well you held it in the road and cleared a wider, clearer path for them.

Right?