Maintaining Sanity in the Midst of Unrelenting Oppression

When asked by the publisher of this manuscript to write a brief statement for the cover of this book, we were immediately driven to the second stanza of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" by James Weldon Johnson and J. R. Rosamond Johnson.



The second stanza says,







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







To our sisters and brothers, keep praying, keep singing, and keep going to safe places to cry! Our sanity demands.