Letter from the President February 2022

“Lift Every Voice and Sing!”

Dear Reader,

February is Black History Month and every year in my church we sing the song written by James

Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, and famously arranged by Roland M. Carter, “Lift Every

Voice and Sing.” The hymn has come to be known as the Black National Anthem. The words are

powerful: “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.”

I was blessed recently to listen on YouTube to Kirk Dewayne Franklin and his choir singing this great

hymn. Franklin is an American choir director, gospel singer, dancer, songwriter, and author. He is

best known for leading urban contemporary gospel choirs such as The Family, God’s Property, and

One Nation Crew (1NC) among others. He has won numerous awards, including 16 Grammy

Awards. He is one of the inaugural inductees into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame.

I encourage you to go to YouTube and listen to the Kirk Franklin’s group sing this great hymn and be

blessed. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHn2SSzZszU

Lift Every Voice and Sing

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 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 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

Our native land

John K. Graham, M.D., D.Min

John K. Graham

President and CEO – Institute for Spirituality and Health