Lift Every Voice and Sing

"Lift Every Voice and Sing" — often called "The Negro National Hymn", "The Negro National Anthem", "The Black National Anthem", or "The African-American National Anthem"— is a song written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) and set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson (1873–1954) in 1900.

History

"Lift Every Voice and Sing" was publicly performed first as a poem as part of a celebration of Lincoln's Birthday on February 12, 1900 by 500 school children at the segregated Stanton School. Its principal, James Weldon Johnson, wrote the words to introduce its honored guest Booker T. Washington. The poem was later set to music by Johnson's brother John in 1905. Singing this song quickly became a way for African Americans to demonstrate their patriotism and hope for the future. In calling for earth and heaven to "ring with the harmonies of Liberty," they could speak out subtly against racism and Jim Crow laws—and especially the huge number of lynchings accompanying the rise of the Ku Klux Klan at the turn of the century. In 1919, the NAACP adopted the song as "The Negro National Anthem." By the 1920s, copies of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" could be found in black churches across the country, often pasted into the hymnals. In 1939, Augusta Savage received a commission from the World's Fair and created a 16-foot plaster sculpture called Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing. Savage did not have any funds for a bronze cast, or even to move and store it, and it was destroyed by bulldozers at the close of the fair.^[1]

During and after the American Civil Rights Movement, the song experienced a rebirth, and by the 1970s was often sung immediately after "The Star Spangled Banner" at public events and performances across the United States where the event had a significant African-American population.^{[citation needed]}

In Maya Angelou's 1969 autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the song is sung by the audience and students at Maya's eighth grade graduation, after a white school official dashes the educational aspirations of her class.^[2]

In 1990, singer Melba Moore released a modern rendition of the song, which she recorded along with others including R&B artists Anita Baker, Stephanie Mills, Dionne Warwick, Bobby Brown, Stevie Wonder, Jeffrey Osborne, and Howard Hewett; and gospel artists BeBe & CeCe Winans, Take 6, and The Clark Sisters. Partly because of the success of this recording, "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" was entered into the Congressional Record by Del. Walter Fauntroy (D-DC),^[3] as the official African American National Hymn.

Other notable recorded contemporary versions include those by Women of the Calabash (The Kwanzaa Album), Winard Harper (Faith album), and Linda Tillery, Leontyne Price, and the Cultural Heritage Choir (Front Porch Music album).

On January 20, 2009, the Rev. Joseph Lowery (former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference) used a near-verbatim recitation of the song's third stanza to begin his benediction at the inauguration ceremony for President Barack Obama.

The first verse is the one most commonly heard.

Lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise, high as the list’ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith
that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope
that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod, bitter the chast’ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet,
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way
that with tears has been watered.
We have come, treading our path
thro’ the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from a gloomy past, till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam
of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who hast by thy might, led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places
Our God where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world
we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.^[4]

See also

African American portal

• James Weldon Johnson

References

1. ^ Bearden, Romare and Henderson, Harry. A History of African-American Artists (From 1792 to the Present), pp. 168-180, Pantheon Books (Random House), 1993, ISBN 0-394-57016-2
2. ^ Angelou, Maya (1969). I know why the caged bird sings. New York, New York: Random House. pp. 169–184. ISBN 0-375-50789-2. 
3. ^ Anderson, Susan Heller. "Chronicle", New York Times, April 18, 1990. Retrieved January 20, 2009.
4. ^ The African American National Anthem, ncccusa.org.

External links

• Lift Every Voice and Sing: A Celebration of the Negro National Anthem, edited by Julian Bond and Sondra Kathryn Wilson
• NPR's Performance Today page on Black History Month — includes a link to a Real Player version of the song
• Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet, transcript of Rev. Lowery's Inauguration Benediction
• Video of singing "Lift Every Voice and Sing" led by Alice Walker and Dr. Rudolph Byrd at Emory University
• Grace and James Weldon Johnson Website

this poem was edited by tradaiza cuzar