Black History Trivia

Black History Month was founded by Dr. Carter G. Woodson in February 1926 as Negro History Week eventhoug Dr. Woodson never confined Negro History to a week. This year we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Black History Month.

A touch of history — “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” was adopted by the NAACP as the Black National Anthem in 1919. It was written as a poem by NAACP leader and poet James Weldon Johnson in 1900, with music composed by his brother, John Rosamond Johnson. Originally created for a celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, it was first performed by 500 school children in Jacksonville, Florida. 

Lift every voice and sing
Till 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 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 chast’ning rod,
Felt in the day that hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet,
Come to the place on 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 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 prayLest our feet
Stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Least our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee,
Shadowed beneath the hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.

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MEMORY VERSE CHALLENGE:  Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?  there is no searching to his understanding?  He giveth power to the fainth; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.  Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.  But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.  (Isaiah 40:28-31)