The story of the week is Lift Every Voice and Sing: A Celebration Of African American National Anthem, written by James Weldon Johnson and illustrated by Elizabeth Catlett. This song has long been considered the unofficial national anthem of African Americans and has been, and is often still, sung in the morning at schools that primarily serve Black students. It is an intense song chronicling the sense of community, joy, heartache,survival, horror, overcoming of hardships, spiritual strength and hope for the future within the African American experience, and the ongoing struggle for justice, equality and freedom within the United States. Some of the pictures ( and words) in the book will be considered too graphic for young children (although it is always interesting to see what different people, families and communities try to “shelter” their children from and whether this is even desirable or possible.) So for instance, opposite the words, “We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,/ We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered” is the image of a black man being lynched. Make your own smart decisions based on the chronological age of the child you are dealing with, their emotional and intellectual maturity, your ability and willingness to address the issues and emotions raised by the book, and your social, cultural, educational and historical situation.
Here is a short history of the poem and song Lift Every Voice and Sing https://pages.stolaf.edu/americanmusic/2017/10/07/lift-every-voice-and-sing-a-brief-history/