Lift every voice and sing, till earth and Heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of liberty
I remember the first time being fully aware of the power of this hymn. I was a young woman attending a South Florida African American church where my husband, Ken had been invited to preach. Every person in the church got to his or her feet and sang with a depth of feeling I couldn't quite understand. I would soon learn that years before the NAACP had dubbed it "The Black National Anthem." And that is what it has remained.
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
Years ago, in black schools across the country this hymn was sung after the National Anthem. It's words help all of us to know how far we've come and how far we have to go.
Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died.
In 1900, James Weldon Johnson, the principal of a black school in Jacksonville, FL was planning a celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday. Booker T. Washington was a guest at the school. Instead of writing a speech Mr. Johnson wrote a poem. It was later set to music by his brother, John Roseamond Johnson.
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered
The song has been recorded by scores of black artists. Most recently, in April of 2018, Beyonce performed it at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
In September of 2016 it was sung at the conclusion of the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture at which President Obama delivered he keynote address.
And on October 19, 2017 when white nationalist leader Richard Spencer spoke at the University of Florida the university's carillon played "Lift Every Voice and Sing."
Showed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand
True to our God, true to our native land.
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