Telegram - Serving Metropolitan Detroit Since 1944

For those of you that know me, you know I have a thing about The Black National Anthem' – Lift Every Voice and Sing. Lift Every Voice and Sing was written as a poem by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) and then set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954) in 1899. It was first performed in public in the Johnsons' hometown of Jacksonville, Florida as part of a celebration of Lincoln's Birthday on February 12, 1900 by a choir of 500 schoolchildren at the segregated Stanton School, where James Weldon Johnson was principal.

Today "Lift Every Voice and Sing" is one of t...