ABOUT THE SCHOOL
John Mercer Langston High School was the high school for African-American students from 1936 to 1970 in Danville, Virginia during the period when racial segregation in public education was commonplace in the American South.
Schools like Langston – which were numerous all across the South – despite the historical prevalence of racial segregation, discrimination and injustice in the United States, met the challenges of the times. They prepared students for entry into a racist and oft-times dangerous world, and trained them to meet it with hard work and fierce determination.
Administered and staffed by a legion of Historically Black College and University (HBCU) graduates, Langston and schools like it propelled its students forward, academically, socially and professionally. Langston, and schools like it, became beacons for fierce competition, accomplishment, dignity and pride and became the entrée to a world of possibilities.
We, the Langston alumni, are eternally indebted to Langston and grateful for all the principals, teachers, parents, friends and supporters from our community that made it possible.
Langston, Dear Langston, we sing, we sing, we sing, of You.
Still I Rise
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
