"Lift every voice and sing", the African-American National Anthem
1. Considered the unofficial black national anthem, the hymn "Lift every voice and sing" was composed by brothers James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson to commemorate Abraham Lincoln's birthday in 1900. It was first performed by 500 choir members of the first African-American high school in the US, Stanton School, in Jacksonville, Florida.
​James Johnson was principal of the school and quite an accomplished person, having passed the Florida bar, founding Florida's first African-American newspaper, and transforming Stanton School into the first high school for African Americans in Florida.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called it the "Negro national anthem" in 1919 for its rousing ability to express liberation and affirmation for African-American people. It has been sung for many important occasions including for the opening ceremonies of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The National Football League played or performed this song for the first week of its 2020 season. It was part of the pre-game show for the 55th Super Bowl in 2021 and played throughout the 2021 season too.
Read the lyrics to vs. 1 and try to answer the questions:
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How can singing help bring about liberty?​
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What does victory look like?
Read the lyrics to vs. 2 and try to answer the question: What might "hope unborn" mean?
1. Lift every voice and sing,
’Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening 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 ’til victory is won.
2. Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening 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 died.
​We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path
​ through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
’Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
3. God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has 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.
A significant milestone in the development of our country's culture was Beyonce's performance of the song in front of tens of thousands of people to open the Coachella music festival in 2018. Beyonce was the first African-American woman to headline the annual music festival. She used her moment to emphasize the past and present struggles for justice and equality in our country.
In her performance, you'll notice a drumline and bleacher presentation by the dancers/instrumentalists. Beyonce was drawing on the images and movements of college football games, particularly of HBCUs or Historically Black Colleges and Universities. She even donated four $25,000 scholarships to Tuskegee University, Bethune-Cookman University, Xavier University of Louisiana, and Wilberforce University through her BeyGOOD initiative.
