This is Episode 97 of Poems for the Speed of Life.

Today's piece is "Lift Every Voice and Sing" by James Weldon Johnson.

James Weldon Johnson American writer, civil rights leader and activist born in 1871. 

The son of an immigrant mother from the Caribbean, he devoted his work to helping the advancement of black people and became a prominent early member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, an organization with aims that included extending brotherhood, scholarship and service and devoting itself to fostering the "inclusive we", to be a part rather than apart from of the wider community. Today, Phi Beta Sigma mentors thousands of young men and extends more than $1 million in scholarships every year.

"Lift Every Voice and Sing" could be interpreted now as a powerful and inspiring anthem for Black people, or, more broadly, for all of us, everywhere in the world, as a call to action to continue the labours of our lives with energy and faith despite everything that might go against us.

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