James Weldon Johnson and Haiti

Did you know that the composer of the black national anthem, "Lift Every Voice and Sing," is of partial Haitian descent? Though his mother is from the Bahamas, her name, according to Wikipedia, is Helen Louise Dillet, and this indicates that Johnson and his composer brother were sons of a Nassau woman of Haitian descent, born in 1842. The question is, however, were her parents Saint Dominguans leaving a French colony or were they leaving an independent state of Haiti? Evidence would suggest his mother's descent can be traced to enslaved Saint Dominguans who moved to the Bahamas, which is part of the reason French surnames can be found there, such as the famous Sidney Poitier. Apparently, his mother's ancestry can be traced to a Stephen Dillet, a slave from Saint Domingue sent away from the island on a schooner by a Frenchman with the surname Dillet, which likely indicates French ancestry, too, a fact one can find in his autobiography.  Maybe this may be part of the reason Johnson so passionately documented abuses of power on the part of US Marines in Haiti during the American occupation, because he took pride in the Haitian Revolution and Haiti as a symbol for black liberation as well as the land of his mother's forebears. Thus, one can see the influence of Haiti, the first black state in the hemisphere, as a definite presence in "Lift Every Voice and Sing" and the long history of black nationalism. On that note, enjoy the lyrics of this beautiful tribute to black solidarity and freedom!

Lift every voice and sing, till 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 till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening 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.