“The Pan African History is a History of Overcoming and Perseverance”

Africa - Europe – Caribbean – South America
Central America – North America

Researching the Diaspora’s Culture and History
– “Village by Village!”

“We are the custodians, as well as, the heirs of a great civilization. We have given something to the world as a race, and for this, we are proud and fully conscious of our place in the total picture of mankind’s development.”
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​Mary Jane McLeod Bethune
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The Black National Anthem
“Lift Every Voice and Sing” is a hymn written as a poem James Weldon Johnson in 1900. His brother, John Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954), composed the music for the lyrics. A choir of 500 schoolchildren performed the song for the first time at the segregated Stanton School in Jacksonville, Florida, where James Weldon Johnson was principal. The song was sung to celebrate the birthday of President Abraham Lincoln. The spiritual truths permeated the Civil Rights Movement is now sung with respect at many community and church celebrations.
The Anthem words connect the spirits and truths of a Global People Resilient and Achievers in all mankind’s endeavors.
 
“Lift Every Voice and Sing’
Lift every voice and sing,
'Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list'ning 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 'til 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,
'Til 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,
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.
 
The Pan African Cultural Heritage Library continues the work, of Lifting Every Voice!
 
 

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