{"id":19810,"date":"2021-02-10T09:49:43","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T14:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19810"},"modified":"2021-02-10T09:49:43","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T14:49:43","slug":"im-on-my-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19810","title":{"rendered":"I&#8217;m On My Way"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>In prayer we trust \/<\/em>&nbsp;<em>By\nhope we live \/ On truth we stand \/ From our heart we give \/ Love. \u2014<\/em>Sweet\nHoney in the Rock<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GBlT7FwWrfI\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>Dr. Bernice\nJohnson Reagon founded the iconic African American a cappella group, Sweet\nHoney in the Rock, which has been performing for over forty years. In her book <\/em>If You Don\u2019t Go, Don\u2019t Hinder Me<em>, Dr. Reagon recounts how many of the\nsongs of the Civil Rights Movement had their origins in the spirituals of the\nnineteenth century. The first verse of the title song of her book goes, \u201cI\u2019m on\nmy way to Canaan land \/ I\u2019m on my way to Canaan land \/ I\u2019m on my way to Canaan\nland \/ I\u2019m on my way, great God, I\u2019m on my way.\u201d She writes:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the\nCivil Rights Movement of the 1960s, we sang this song but changed the word\n\u201cCanaan\u201d to freedom:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<em>I\u2019m on my way to freedom land \/ I\u2019m on my\nway, great God, I\u2019m on my way.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One word,\n\u201cfreedom,\u201d documents the time period. One would not have been able to sing\nfreedom during the time when slavery was an integral part of this country. By\nthe twentieth century, the 1960s, we had cleared enough space with our living\nand struggling and dying and going on that, no matter what, we could say and\nsing: \u201cI want my freedom now!\u201d . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether you\nsang \u201cfreedom\u201d during the sixties or the older traditional text with the word\n\u201cCanaan,\u201d in essence the song says, I must leave or change where I am, and I\nwant you to go with me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>I asked my mother come and\ngo with me \/ I\u2019m on my way, great God, I\u2019m on my way.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brother, sister, pastor . . . I want you to\ngo, but if you don\u2019t go, get out of my way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>If you don\u2019t go, going\nanyhow \/ I\u2019m on my way, great God, I\u2019m on my way.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you don\u2019t go, don\u2019t hinder me. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the\nnineteenth century, being on your way out of slavery usually meant leaving a\nplace to go to another place, covering geographical territory. You actually had\nto put distance between where you were and where you were headed. During the\ntwentieth-century Civil Rights Movement, being on your way often meant staying\nwhere you were and wreaking havoc in your local community, insisting on its\ntransformation so that a new construction could be possible. Black people were\ndetermined to rearrange space for themselves and their future. We knew that as\ntax-paying citizens we deserved access to opportunities and resources provided\nby our organized governing bodies. It really was well overdue, this standing up\nand taking up new space\u2014we had to move! . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Richard again: This is the\npower of the spirituals! Such sacred songs transcend time, still bringing\nsolidarity, hope, and freedom to people today. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In prayer we trust \/&nbsp;By hope we live \/ On truth we stand \/ From our heart we give \/ Love. \u2014Sweet Honey in the Rock Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon founded the iconic African American a cappella group, Sweet Honey in the Rock, which has been performing for over forty years. In her book If [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19810"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19811,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19810\/revisions\/19811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}