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mind when I think about African-American citizens and the generations hate and violence that they have endured...and even that spawned among themselves. The first is the "Negro National Anthem" by James Weldon Johnson. I never knew anything about this until our school held a Black History program and the visiting chorus sang it:
'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
The second is the speech by MLK on the Viet Nam war." You can read it at this site or listen to it:
www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm
If the link does not work goole for "mlk speeches." MLK was truly a great American hero.
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