James Weldon Johnson (center) with friend Bob Cole (left) and brother Rosamond

On the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday in the year 1900, a group of young men in the city of Jacksonville, Florida arranged to celebrate Lincoln’s birthday. James Weldon Johnson and his brother James Rosamond Johnson presented to the group through a choir 500 Colored school children a song they composed for the occasion: “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” That combination of a vibrant lyric and stirring music later forged itself into the consciousness of a marginalized people, as the, “Negro National Anthem” here performed by Melba Moore Featuring Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, The Clark Sisters, Freddie Jackson, Anita Baker, Bobby Brown, Howard Hewett, Take 6, Stephanie Mills, BeBe & CeCe Winans and Jeffrey Osborne:

Laudatory paean to the promise of America have been penned by bards such as Francis Scott Key; Walt Whitman; Carl Sandburg; Julia Ward Howe, Katharine Lee Bates; and Emma Lazarus. The lack of epidermal melanin provided all of these poets with direct access to that American promise. The exception of Emma Lazarus, however, was conditioned by the fact that her people were in that terrible time warp between the flight of Moses and the blight of Hitler. None of the hymns of praise of these writers, however -- with the still-present sting of barbarous treatment before and after bondage -- no truer faith in the promise of America an exceed the tone of forgiveness and hope as it is excruciatingly rung through the words and music of; “Lift Every Voice and Sing, which lyrics bear the weight of exile, bondage cruelty and hope.

James Weldon Johnson poured into those lyrics the blood, sweat and convictions of a people determined to convert a part of the damned into a future of. “I am!”

As an aside, considering the virulent antipathy to African Americans later to be exhibited by President Woodrow Wilson, it is remarkable that Present Theodore Roosevelt appointed James Weldon Johnson as Consul to Venezuela and Nicaragua

Following are the lyrics to, “Lift Every Voice and Sing”:

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 has 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 hast brought us thus far on the way;

Thou who hast 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.

PS;

In 1985 Miller High Life asked Deborah McDuffie to come up with a "meaningful" project for Black History Month. She decided to arrange and record a celebratory contemporary version of "Lift Every Voice and Sing". She called friends Al Green and Deniece Williams who agreed to sing the duet, backed by Patti Austin, Roberta Flack, Melba Moore and Ms McDuffie. The band consisted of the studio musicians who made up John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd's Blues Brothers Band, along with other notable musicians, including the late great Yogi Horton and jazz legend Jon Faddis. Leon Pendarvis penned the charts and was Musical Director. Husband and wife Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee provided the voice-over narration for the commercials. Recorded in New York at Clinton Studios, it started out as a jingle but ended up a full length recording.

On D-Day in Philly, in Forty-Four,
I, at fifteen, sat on the floor –

All night long, as it turned out to be –
It was finally D-Day, a big deal for me.

The radio screeched from the undersea cable.
I pressed my ear close, to hear what I was able.

For months we had known this day was to come.
I was excited, somewhat more than some.

I had followed the war since I heard of Pearl Harbor.
Having been out all day, when I saw the ajar-door.

I found everyone around the radio clustered;
“Japanese” and, “Pearl Harbor” were the few words I mustered.

The next day, at Junior High, we met in assembly.
Roosevelt on the radio spoke of an, “Infamy.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer showed maps every day;
Two theaters of action were always in play.

The world opened to me on the Seventh of December,
Cascading in with news I’ll always remember.

Ration books followed – less dairy and meats;
Air Raid Wardens pounded their beats.

Black curtains covered home lights and cars;
The only things allowed to shine at night were the stars.

Those elsewhere would laugh at these things;
We had no idea on what real life clings

Quite superficial for us was the war;
It went for us as with me on the floor:

Listening to disembodied reports of men dying –
Excited and interested, but not even crying.

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

 The words are those Abraham Lincoln used to wrap up his First Inaugural Address, delivered on March 4, 1861

Just a little over a month later on April 12, the first shot from a traitorous battery, fired on the United States federal installation at Fort Sumter. That was how it was received and responded to by those that Lincoln said "were not enemies".

Our nation subsequently spent five long years and the highest cost in blood ever paid by this Republic to keep those who would dismantle the country, from doing so. This is what the outstretched hand to slavers, received in turn...

Lincoln was the kind of man who took his political opponents, the very men who had just campaigned against him, and made them his Cabinet Secretaries.

Lincoln was also the kind of man that, once they made themselves plain, understood clearly who and what the enemy was. He was relentless in his desire to crush the rebellion. He fired one general after another because he thought them not aggressive enough. He was willing to spend $6,190,000,000 (in 1865 money) and hundreds of thousands (1,094,453 total for both sides, including accidents, suicides, sicknesses, murders, and executions*) of lives to save the Union. So he was no hippie-peacenik as this phrase out of context might lead some to believe.

He knew that the bridges he had to build would be with people of many backgrounds, with many differing beliefs, to create a coalition that had at its core the continuation of The Union. That meant the one thing all of these diverse people had in common, was a clear picture of who they were uniting against, i.e. those who were attempting to destroy the Union. Let it never be forgotten or obfuscated that the reason the secessionists decided to take up arms against Old Glory was so that they could maintain fellow human beings in bondage.

Today we have once again amongst us the spiritual if not biological descendants of those responsible for the carnage we call the Civil War. People who irresponsibly make statements that encourage secession, that threaten violence if their narrow minded and bigoted ways do not carry the day democratically. People who clamor to create the "christian nation" they are convinced the Founders meant, rather than the secular state they actually created. People who believe women should be kept second class with not even the right to choose when to have children or be paid their worth for their labor. People who cherry pick scripture to justify hatred toward all those they perceive as different, from LGBT, African-Americans, Muslims, Jews, Hispanics and a long list of others...

Yes, the Klu Klux Klan is resurgent, as is the John Birch Society. Skinheads and neo-Nazis and all manner of so-called "fringe" groups swell in numbers, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. These people have infiltrated legitimate political parties and organizations, funded by billionaires who know that dividing public opinion is the best way to get their horrible plutocratic agendas moved forward. Supported by non-think-tank lie-machines that pump out misinformation and deceive the electorate in to voting against its own interests. By mega-church millionaire pastors who use their pulpit to sew bigotry and prejudice. Filled with fear by the constant flow of conspiracy theories and ongoing made up crises. They harass, bully and threaten all who do not give way. And yes, they have even murdered.

This is not about Democrats vs. Republicans, left vs. right, or liberal vs. conservative, but simply, about right vs. wrong.

Americans are a diverse populace. We are of many races, cultures, heritages, religions and lack thereof. We speak many languages, eat different food and listen to a wide variety of music. We find entertainment in every type of sport, theater, film. We agree on almost nothing, and for the most part this is as it should be. The thing that makes us identify as Americans is our willingness to agree to disagree, to separate church from state, to recognize that those of a differing opinion still have a right to voice it. We must also recognize that not everyone who lives in America, fits this definition of being American. And some of them would not only disagree, but work to destroy this definition.

We need to construct alliances that will ensure those who would destroy everything good about this nation can never, ever, gain power in this country. That we, like Lincoln, will band together despite our differences and defeat the forces of darkness.

So, let us find common ground as Americans. Americans who believe and are willing to work, and yes, if need be, fight, for liberty, freedom and justice for ALL.

As a post-script; a reminder that the very last act of the same traitorous rebels that Lincoln tried to reach out to as a last ditch avoidance of bloodshed, was the spilling of his brains all over Ford's Theater. Even in defeat, they could not accept their evil way of life was gone.

We must always keep that in mind...

Posted as a FB NOTE

OTE

Written at the beginning of the millennium. Twenty years later, with the rise of vitriol and violence still in pursuit of a people as old as the Pyramids, a reprint is timely.

With faith and family intact, they survive the crucible of cruel Egyptian bondage. Even as they watch the Red Sea roll over the remnants of Pharaoh’s army, little do they know that suffering in the shadows of the pyramids would be counted among the least of their trials.

After two score years of desert-wandering, and armed with a ten-point, divine mandate for living, they are delivered into a Land of Milk and Honey. Despite the apparent preciousness of their legacy, peace would be only a provisional respite in their exodus. Amid the many future plights of this people, there would burn brightly the eternal flames of the miraculous lamps in Jerusalem. Later, the sacrificed souls at Masada would serve as silent witnesses to the profundity of faith.

While attempting to retain their dignity under the Roman boot, there arises the fateful convergence, at Jerusalem, of the Sanhedrin, the Procurator of Judea and a popular, itinerant rabbi. From that point on, as their great temples lie in the dust, they are splintered as a people and dispersed to the four corners of the earth. This Diaspora is to be long and tedious, as callously they are driven from one nation to another.

This second wandering in a desert created by a mentality of uncomprehending humanity is made tolerable only through their unflinching faith in Yahweh and family. Of much importance would be those steadfast tenets, as they approach the twentieth century and the most devastating outrages ever perpetrated by humankind upon humankind. It is ironic that a century—which in the confines of its mere one hundred years would exceed all previous accomplishments to the benefit of man—also would be known as the low-watermark of human degradation!

After such a Holocaust, they again—and with a sense of finality—seek a renewal of faith and family in a long-ago-promised place. Again, peace proves to be petulant when pursued.

So, now, at long last, at the dawn of a new century, can we not heed the exhortation of their best-known son—the one a goodly part of the world embraces—

At long last, even as another conflagration threatens to again rend the world asunder, can we not heed his constant invocation to accept, also, the rest of his brethren?