Hymn inspired Jefferson Thomas of the Little Rock Nine

Today's New York Times obituary of Jefferson Thomas of the Little Rock Nine features the following segment about what inspired Mr.; Thomas to hang on as he suffered from hate and abuse at Central High School in 1957 and 1958:

In 2007, Mr. Thomas told The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that prayer had helped him through the integration struggle. He said that one Sunday at church he heard the hymn “Lord, Don’t Move My Mountain, Just Give Me the Strength to Climb,” inspiring him to pray for strength, rather than for the acceptance of his classmates.


“It seemed that overnight, things stopped being so bad,” he said. “The same things were happening, but they didn’t hurt me as much. I didn’t feel like I was a failure. I felt victorious because I made it through the day.”