Lift Every Voice and Sing Theme of Race

The word "race" is never explicitly mentioned in "Lift Every Voice and Sing," and yet it's a poem that's all about race. After all, "Lift Every Voice and Sing" was written by an African-American poet living in the south in 1900, at a time when Jim Crow was in full effect. How can this not be a poem about race? Even though the poem doesn't mention race explicitly, its focus on injustice references the racial oppression that African-Americans experienced at the time that James Weldon Johnson was alive.

1. If we didn't know that the author of this poem was African-American, would we read it as a poem about race?
2. What images and metaphors in the poem allude to the struggle for racial equality?
3. What's the "new day" that the speakers mention in line 9 of the poem? What can this "new day" represent in terms of the fight for racial equality?

This is not a poem about the African-American struggle specifically. It's a poem about the struggle for freedom for all.

Nope, back that up a bit—this poem is just about the African-American struggle for racial equality.