Lift Every Voice and Sing
by James Weldon Johnson, 1871 - 1938
Lift every voice and sing,
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list’ning 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 chast’ning 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 hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who hast 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.
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Veterans Health Administration
Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System
Observance February 17th
KEY NOTE SPEAKER
DR. MARCUS COX
Marcus S. Cox serves as Associate Dean, Graduate Programs and
Summer School and Director of the Center for Continuing Studies and
Distance Education in the College of Arts & Sciences at Xavier
University of Louisiana. He earned an undergraduate degree in
marketing and a master’s degree in history from Southern University
and a master’s degree in business administration from The Citadel
School of Business Administration. Dr. Cox received his doctorate
degree in African American history from Northwestern University in
Evanston, Illinois. Throughout his professional career, he has held
leadership positions as Founding Director of the African American
Studies, Assistant Dean of the School of Humanities and Social
Sciences and Associate Dean of The Citadel Graduate College with
leadership responsibility of Evening Undergraduate Studies.
Professor Cox specializes in African American civil-military history, the
Modern Civil Rights Movement, African American history, and U.S.
history post-1945. He is the author of over a dozen articles and reviews
on the history of African American military personnel, black higher
education and military training programs at black colleges and
universities. He is also the author of Segregated Soldiers: Military
Training at Historically Black Colleges in the Jim Crow South. Dr. Cox’s
current book project uses the U.S. military’s landmark studies on race
relations in the armed forces, Freedom to Serve (1950), The President’s
Committee Equal Opportunity in the Armed Forces (1964) and From
Representation to Inclusion (2011), to assess racial progress in the
armed forces today and explain why the U.S. military continues to be a
societal barometer for social progress in America.
Among many organizations and associations, Dr. Cox is a member of
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the Knights of Peter Claver Inc., the
American Conference of Academic Deans, the Southern Historical
Association, and the Association of the Study of African American Life
and History.
Sequence of Events
Welcome
Jemichael Manora,
Occupational Safety & Health Manager
African American/Black History SEPM
Opening Remarks
Fernando O. Rivera, FACHE
SLVHCS Medical Center Director
The Crisis in Black Education Theme Summary
Jemichael Manora
Success Always Leave Footprints Presentation
Portrayal of African American
Historical Educational Figures
Introduction of the Speaker
Jemichael Manora
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Marcus Cox,
Associate Dean, College of Arts & Sciences, Xavier University of Louisiana
Director of the Center for Continuing Studies and Distance Education
Special Presentation/Recognition to Speaker
Fernando O. Rivera, FACHE
SLVHCS Medical Center Director
Special Presentation to Quiz Winner
Fernando O. Rivera, FACHE
SLVHCS Medical Center Director
Closing Remarks
Fernando O. Rivera, FACHE
SLVHCS Medical Center Director
Lift Every Voice and Sing (words on back)
Rhonda Richardson, Budget Analyst