The 2026 Evening Celebration
Welcome – Rick Trietley, President, Viterbo University
Invocation – The Mayfield Experience
Opening Remarks – Tracy Littlejohn, Evening’s Host
The Lynda Blackmon Lowery Youth Leadership Award
Presented by: Henry Greengrass
The William "Bill" Coleman College Leadership Award
Presented by: The William “ Bill” Coleman Family
The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 2026 Leadership Award
St. Francis Prayer performed by Viterbo University Concert Choir
Composed by: Margaret Bonds (1913 – 1972)
Soloists: Estelle Harris-Eyo (age 8) and Emira Harris-Eyo (age 7)
Director: Dr. Machael Sauer
Piano: Judy Stafslien
Keynote Address: Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners, and author of A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community
Closing Remarks
Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing – All
Call to Action
Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing
Words by James Weldon Johnson
Music by John Rosemond Johnson
- Lift ev’ry voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring
Ring with the harmonies of liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list’ning skies
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.
- Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast’ning 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.
- God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might; led us into the light
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.
Shadowed beneath, thy hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.