Tag Archives: James Weldon Johnson

To Julia, Upon 49 Years of Marriage

By Robin Bates | Published: June 8, 2022

A James Weldon Johnson poem for our 49th wedding anniversary.

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From God’s Breath to “I Can’t Breathe”

By Robin Bates | Published: June 23, 2020

Wednesday This past Juneteenth I was flipping through channels and caught MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell quoting James Weldon Johnson’s “Creation.” It was a moving application of poetry to this important moment in time. Mitchell was referring to George Floyd’s plaintive cry “I can’t breathe” before he was suffocated by Minneapolis police. Johnson’s poem, she said, reminds […]

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Lift Every Voice and Sing

By Robin Bates | Published: January 14, 2017

Both Martin Luther King and James Weldon Johnson, in “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” drew strength and courage from the Book of Exodus.

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And God Said, “That’s Good”

By Robin Bates | Published: January 11, 2015

James Weldon Johnson’s version of the Genesis creation story accords with some contemporary theological theories of God.

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Lifting Ev’ry Voice in Church

By Robin Bates | Published: August 18, 2009

  Let me end this series of posts concerning racism in America on an up note.  This past Sunday I was singing in the Trinity Episcopal Church choir (in St. Mary’s City, Maryland) and we concluded the service with a rousing rendition of hymn 599, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the black […]

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