I learned the song at the age of 8(1987). my 3rd grade music teacher, a tall dark skin black woman with dreads, taught and/or made us learn the song. she flipped on the whole class for attending an elementary school named after the man who wrote it, james weldon johnson, and none of us knew the song. this was the first week of school, the 1st class of our weekly music class. she told the class we better learn the song in a week, she didn't say what she'd do to us if we couldn't sing it word for word, but we all knew we had to learn the song when we come back to class in a week. sure enough, everyone in the class of about 25-30 knew the song.