I've been meaning to post this. I hadn't encountered it until we included it in the Rise Again Songbook. I really like it, aut I don't know much about it. Anybody know of Jean Rohe or the song? Can you give us some background information?

NATIONAL ANTHEM: ARISE! ARISE!
(Jean Rohe)

Lyric (with gratitude to Dr. Martin Luther King and Abel Meeropol, via Billie Holiday)

Atlantic and Pacific flow
The Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico
The land between sustains us all
To cherish it, our tireless call

CHORUS
Arise! Arise!
I see the future in your eyes.
To a more perfect union we aspire
And lift our voices from the fire.

We reached these shores from many lands
We came with hungry hearts and hands
Some came by force and some by will
At the auction block, in the darkened mill

CHORUS

We died in your fields and your factories
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees
With an old coat hanger in a room somewhere
A trail of tears, an electric chair

CHORUS

Our great responsibility
To be guardians of our liberty
'Till tyrants bow to the people's dream
And justice flows like a mighty stream




https://jeanrohe.bandcamp.com/merch/national-anthem-arise-arise-sheet-music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay1iC1zt24A&list=RDMM

https://www.riseupandsing.org/songs/national-anthem-arise-arise