“Lift Every Voice and Sing” is one of those hymns I regularly have a hard time getting through without choking up. Once referred to as the “Negro National Anthen,” it became, along with “We Shall Overcome,” a signature song of protest and hope during the Civil Rights Movement. And while the challenges faced by African-Americans are not my direct experience as a white male who has enjoyed significant privilege, I find the mixture of pain and hope, adversity and courage described so incredibly moving and always feel drawn closer to the causes of justice and civil rights when I sing it. It was written originally as a poem by...