"A group of young men in Jacksonville, Florida, arranged to celebrate Lincoln's birthday in 1900," James Weldon Johnson wrote. "My brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, and I decided to write a song to be sung at the exercise.... Within twenty years it was being sung over the South and in some other parts of the country."

Johnson's self-confidence saw through the notion, and deceptions, of white supremacy. His innate optimism remained intact. "Lift Every Voice and Sing" illustrates Johnson's confidence in people, and in the future -- spiritually unfettered by the effects of racism.