Lift Every Voice and Sing

lift every voice and sing, till heaven and earth ring with the harmonies of liberty. let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies, let it resound loud as the roaring sea. sing a song full of the faith that the darkness past has taught us, sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us, placing our faith into Yahweh son to let us march on till victory is won. Stony the road the black Hebrew slaves trod, bitter the chastening rod, felt in the day when hope unborn had died: yet with a steady best, have not our weary feet come to the place for which the black Hebrew slaves have sighed. the black Hebrew slaves have come over a way that with tears have been watered. the black Hebrew slaves have come treading the path through the blood of the slaughtered. out of that gloomy past, till now we stand at last, where the light gleam of our bright star is cast. Yahweh of our weary years, Yahweh of our silent tears, Yahweh who will bring us on this path. Yahweh who has by his might will led us into his light. keep us forever in his path we pray. lest our feet stray from the places, our Elohim where we will meet thee. lest our hearts drunk with wine of the world we forgot thee. shadowed beneath thy hands, may we forever stand, true is our Elohim, true to our native land, this poem by James Weldon Johnson 1900