Lift Every Voice And Sing – “The Black National Anthem” is a song ...

• 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 the faiththat the dark past has taught us,Sing a song full of the hopethat 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 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 waythat with tears has been watered.We have come, treading our paththro’ the blood of the slaughtered,Out from a gloomy past, till now we stand at lastWhere the white gleamof 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 hast by thy might, led us into the light,Keep us forever in the path, we pray.Lest our feet stray from the placesOur God where we met Thee,Lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the worldwe forget Thee;Shadowed beneath Thy handMay we forever stand,True to our God,True to our native landLift Every Voice And Sing – “The Black National Anthem” is a songwritten as a poem by James Weldon Johnson and set to music byhis brother John Rosamond Johnson in 1900.

Frederick Douglass, an African American born into slavery, is an icon in thehistory of both great Americans and great journalists. He was the founder ofthe North Star, an abolitionist newspaper. Douglass famously said, “Knowledgeis the pathway from slavery to freedom.” Douglass’ book Life and Times ofFrederick Douglass details accounts of what life was like as a slave. An advisorto both Presidents Lincoln and Johnson, as well as a United States Marshal,Douglass was at the forefront of the struggle to have this country live up to itspromise of equity for all.

Born in Chelsea, Mass., Latimer learned mechanical drawingwhile working for a Boston patent attorney. He later invented anelectric lamp and a carbon filament for light bulbs which hepatented in 1882. Latimer was the only African-Americanmember of Thomas Edison's engineering laboratory.

Born in Kentucky, Morgan invented a gas mask (patented1914) that was used to protect soldiers from chlorine fumesduring World War I. Morgan also received a patent (1923)for a traffic signal that featured automated STOP and GOsigns. Morgan's invention was later replaced by trafficlights.

Born Sarah Breedlove (in 1906 she married a newspaper publisher namedChristopher Joseph Walker), she was an African-American businesswoman,hair care entrepreneur and philanthropist. She made her fortune by developingand marketing a hugely successful line of beauty and hair products for blackwomen under the company she founded, Madam C.J. Walker ManufacturingCompany. Upon her death in 1919, she was considered to be the wealthiestAfrican-American woman in America and known to be the first African-American woman millionaire.

Charles Drew was a pioneer researcher in blood plasma for transfusionand in the development of blood banks. Drew received his M.D. andMaster of Surgery (C.M.) degree from McGill University in 1933. In1943, Drew's distinction in his profession was recognized when hebecame the first black surgeon selected to serve as an examiner on theAmerican Board of Surgery. The U.S. Postal Service issued aCommemorative Stamp with his portrait in 1981.

He was an American political scientist and diplomat whoreceived the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediationin Palestine. He was the first person of color to be so honored inthe history of the Prize. He was involved in the formation andadministration of the United Nations and in 1963, received theMedal of Freedom from President John F. Kennedy.

He was a clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in theAfrican-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known forhis role in the advancement of civil rights in the United Statesand around the world using non-violent methods. King hasbecome a national icon in the history of modern Americanliberalism.

The first Freedom Ride took place on May 4, 1961 when seven blacks and sixwhites left Washington, D.C., on two public buses bound for the Deep South.They intended to test the Supreme Court's ruling in Boynton v. Virginia (1960),which declared segregation in interstate bus and rail stations unconstitutional.In the first few days, the riders encountered only minor hostility, but in thesecond week the riders were severely beaten. Outside Anniston, Alabama, oneof their buses was burned, and in Birmingham several dozen whites attackedthe riders only two blocks from the sheriff's office. With the intervention of theU.S. Justice Department, most of CORE's Freedom Riders were evacuated fromBirmingham, Alabama to New Orleans.

In 1962, he was the first African American student admitted to thesegregated University of Mississippi, an event that was aflashpoint in the American civil rights movement. Motivated byPresident John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, Meredith decidedto exercise his constitutional rights and apply to the University ofMississippi. His goal was to put pressure on the Kennedyadministration to enforce civil rights for African Americans.

He was the first African American popularly elected tothe Senate in 1966. He served for two terms. Brookewould remain the only person of African heritage sentto the Senate in the 20th century until 1993.

He was the first African-American mayor serving as mayor ofSpringfield, Ohio. Henry was elected to Springfield's citycommission in 1961, and began his term in January 1962. Thecommission then appointed him as the city's mayor in 1966.He was the mayor from 1966 to 1968.

He was an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, servingfrom October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall was the Court'sfirst African-American justice. Before becoming a judge,Marshall was a lawyer who was best remembered for his highsuccess rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for thevictory in Brown v. Board of Education.

He was the first black male nominated for an AcademyAward for best actor for his performance in The DefiantOnes. He was the first black male to win an Oscar for bestactor in the film Lilies of the Field in 1963. In 1967 hebecame the first Black to have his hand and foot printsplaced in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

Doctor Patricia Bath, an ophthalmologist from New York, was the firstAfrican American female doctor to patent a medical invention. Shedeveloped the Cataract Laserphaco Probe. The probe, patented in 1988,was designed to use the power of a laser to quickly and painlesslyvaporize cataracts, replacing the more common method of using agrinding, drill-like device to remove the afflictions. Dr. Patricia Bathwas the first woman ophthalmologist to be appointed to the faculty ofthe University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine JulesStein Eye Institute.

Wilder was the first African American to be elected as governorof Virginia, and the first to serve as governor of a U.S. state.Wilder served as the 66 th Governor of Virginia from 1990 to1994. When earlier elected as Lieutenant Governor, he was thefirst African American elected to statewide office in Virginia. Hismost recent political office was Mayor of Richmond, Virginia,which he held from 2005 to 2009.

In 1987, Carson made medical history by being the first surgeon in theworld to successfully separate siamese twins (the Binder twins)conjoined at the back of the head. Operations to separate twins joinedin this way had always failed, resulting in the death of one or both ofthe infants. Carson agreed to undertake the operation. The 70-membersurgical team, led by Carson, worked for 22 hours. At the end, thetwins were successfully separated and can now survive independently.

He was the 16th Surgeon General of the United States, sworn inFeb. 13, 1998. He served as Director of the CDC fromNovember15, 1993 until being sworn in as Surgeon General.While at the CDC, he increased childhood immunization ratesfrom 55% in 1992 to 78% in 1996. He was the President ofMeharry Medical College from 1982 to 1993. He was elected tothe Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in1986.

A retired four-star general in the U.S. Army, he was the 65 th Secretaryof State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005.He was the first African-American to serve in that position. During hismilitary career, Powell also served as Nation Security Advisor (1987–1989), as Commander of the U.S. Army Forces Command (1989) and asChairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–1993), holding the latterposition during the Gulf War. He was the first, and so far the only,African American to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winningtalk show, which has become the highest-rated program of itskind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to2011.She has been ranked the richest African American of the20th century, the greatest black philanthropist in Americanhistory, and was for a time the world's only black billionaire in2004.

Rice was the first female African-American secretary of state(2005-2009). Rice was President Bush's National SecurityAdvisor during his first term, making her the first woman toserve in that position. Before joining the Bush administration,she was a professor of political science at Stanford Universitywhere she served as Provost from 1993 to 1999.

Born Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, she is the first African-AmericanFirst Lady of the United States (2008). She is the wife of the 44 thPresident, Barack Obama. Raised in Chicago, Michelle attendedPrinceton University and Harvard Law School and then returned toChicago to work at the law firm Sidley Austin, where she met her futurehusband. As First Lady, she has become an advocate for povertyawareness, nutrition and healthy eating.

He is the 44 th President of the United States and the firstAfrican American to hold the office. Obama previouslyserved as a United States Senator from Illinois, fromJanuary 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the2008 presidential election.

http://www.blackhistory.com/http://www.afroamhistory.about.com/http://www.britannica.com/blackhistoryhttp://www.mclibrary.duke.edu/hom/exhibits/blkhist/http://www.floridablackhistory.com/facts.cfmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African-American_firstshttp://www.naacpcolliercounty.com/