You may be familiar with Biff Henderson, late night talk show David Letterman’s sidekick and the show’s Democratic Convention correspondent.

For reasons I’ll get to at some point down the road, I asked him what his favorite hymn is. He answered immediately: “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

The words of the song were written by James Weldon Johnson and the music was written by his brother, John R. Johnson. The song was performed for the first time on Feb. 12, 1900 to commemorate Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.

“Lift Every Voice” has become a beloved anthem in the African American community.

Henderson made his selection minutes after Barack Obama became the Democratic presidential nominee, moments after Hillary Clinton called for the delegates to select Obama by acclamation.

Said Henderson: “I have many favorite hymns, but that one came to me. Not a bad song at a unified convention.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.