En 1972, el reverendo Jesse Jackson dejó paso, tras su discurso en el Coliseo de Los Angeles, a Kim Weston. Ella es la artífice de una de las interpretaciones más emocionantes que se han hecho del conocido "Lift Every Voice And Sing", concebido primeramente como poema para el aniversario del nacimiento de Abraham Lincoln pero luego adoptado por la NAACP como Himno Nacional Negro (Negro National Anthem). Compuesto por James Weldon Johnson (en la foto) en 1900, supone una contraposición rebelde al "Star Spangled Banner" de la América blanca. Y aquí Kim Weston lo rompe. Interesantes además las imágenes que salen acompañándola. Si véis el documental, podréis ver también el discurso completo de Martin Luther King del final que aquí aparece cortado. Tened un pañuelo cerca cuando lo veáis. Yo, siempre que lo veo, lloro un montón.Lift every voice and sing,
'Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening 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 'til 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,
'Til 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 has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has 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.
