by James Weldon Johnson; Introduction by Sondra Kathryn Wilson

In celebration of the centenary of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" James Weldon Johnson's most famous lyric, now embraced as the Negro National Anthem, this Penguin original presents all the poems from Johnson's published works--Fifty years and other Poems (1917), God's Trombones (1927), and Saint Peter Relates an Incident of the Resurrection Day (1935)--along with a number of previously unpublished poems. Sondra Kathryn Wilson provides an introduction that sheds light on Johnson's many achievements and his pioneering contributions to recording and celebrating the African American experience.