Ode to the Unsung Hero -

Lift Every Voice (Ah Ha!)

Wednesday, February 28, 2007. The last day of Black History Month 07. The final day of our annual celebration that has existed since 1926 -- credited to Harvard Scholar Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who was determined to bring Black History into the public arena. According to historians, Woodson devoted his life to making "the world see the Negro as a participant rather than as a lay figure in history" and organized the first annual Negro History Week in 1926. Fifty years later, as part of the nation's bicentennial, Negro History Week expanded into the Black History Month that we know today -- a four-week-long celebration of African-American History.

Now, if you know me well, you've probably be waiting for this one since February 1st. You KNEW the chick who complained about her history teacher ignoring Black History Month in a letter to the editor of her middle school paper... the chick who claims to have a little Angela (Davis), Sojourner (Truth) and Rosa (Parks) living inside of her... THAT chick would NOT let February 2007 pass us by with ZERO mention of BLACK HISTORY MONTH on her blog. Yep - you guessed it. So, on the last day of the shortest month -- right on the heels of freshly recorded Super Bowl, Oscar and even State of the Union Address Black history... I give you the first installment of my ODE TO THE (BLACK) UNSUNG HERO.

Lift Every Voice & Sing...

The Negro National Anthem might be one of the things I love most about being Black. I mean, 108 years after it was written, the lyrics still move me every time I hear or sing them. And even though I recently learned that many people of other races have no idea that the song exists, I absolutely love "lifting my voice to sing" it at every HBCU football or basketball game... and I look forward to belting it at the top of my lungs with my head held high during the "congregational hymn" for four Sundays out of the year. Ah, the joys of Black History Month....

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....

Man, James Weldon Johnson did his thing when he wrote that song (one time for all of his -- and my -- fellow Atlanta University and Clark Atlanta University alum)! Verse-to-verse, The Negro National Anthem tells the story of our past, our future and OUR HOPE ("God of our weary years... thou who has brought us thus far on the way..."). But, for the purposes of this blog posting...

I bet you didn't know there is an (BLACK) UNSUNG HERO in the Negro National Anthem. His name is JOHN ROSAMOND JOHNSON.

While James Weldon Johnson gets plenty of credit for writing the Negro National Anthem, you never hear anything about his little brother's contribution to the song. Born August 11, 1873 in Jacksonville, Florida, composer John Rosamond Johnson WROTE THE MUSIC TO THE NEGRO NATIONAL ANTHEM. Brother of James Weldon Johnson, John R. Johnson attended Atlanta University and the New England Conservatory of Music. He and his brother belonged to the song writing team of Cole and Johnson Brothers, writing over 200 songs. He also edited a number of collections of African American music. John R. Johnson died on November 11, 1954 in New York City.

This has been today's little known nugget of Black History (part one) -- ah ha! :-)

Be enlightened. Be proud. Be blessed.