I wish that “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” might be substituted for some of the purely martial and unspiritual so-called national anthems are sung by the peoples. It is a great upwelling of prayer from the soul of a race long-wronged but with faith unbroken. In 1928, Rabbi Stephen Wise, a white supporter of the N.A.A.C.P., wrote: The “National Anthem’’ by Rosamond and James Weldon Johnson, text and music alike, is the noblest anthem I have ever heard. Within 20 years, the song had become known as the “Negro National Anthem” and was adopted by the N.A.A.C.P. It was a lament and encomium to the story and struggle of black people.' 'The song proved to be, both then and soon after, much bigger than an ode to any one leader or icon. The Johnsons at once wrote black history and wrote black people into the traditions of Western music with their noble song.” It was a lament and encomium to the story and struggle of black people. Perry notes that “the song proved to be, both then and soon after, much bigger than an ode to any one leader or icon. It was dedicated to Washington and sung by the students of Stanton School where James was the principal.

Washington, “the preeminent (albeit controversial) black leader at the turn of the century,” Ms. The song was first performed in 1900 for Booker T. Instead, he capitalized on the nascent ideas for the poem and fashioned them into lyrics as his brother wrote the score. James had planned to write a poem to commemorate Abraham Lincoln’s birthday on Feb. “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was written in 1900 by two brothers from Jacksonville, Fla.: novelist, poet, songwriter and lawyer-activist James Weldon Johnson, and composer and musician John Rosamond Johnson. Imani Perry’s biography of the song, May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem, offers an insightful look at the Black community’s changing relationship with the hymn, revealing what was important to any given generation. Two important themes emerged in my consciousness at the time: the way the particular history, experience and culture of Black Americans offered a piercing critique of our nation’s collective self-image, demanding that America be what it says it is and the fundamental need for enduring, socially shared meaning to be expressed and passed on through art, ritual and performance. It must have been during my college years that I began to understand the significance of the song-its place in American communal life.

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” has always been there: in the ether of every Black church attended in Chicago in “the Hills” of north-central Mississippi and in “the Delta,” where the blues and my daddy were born. Not unlike the experience of singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” or reciting the Nicene Creed, it is only possible to pull off the performance in the presence of a congregation that reminds you of the next line.

It is the song sung in the places where our “fathers and mothers had sighed.” The words and melody are eminently familiar to me. It has always been there: in the ether of every Black church attended in Chicago in “the Hills” of north-central Mississippi and in “the Delta,” where the blues and my daddy were born. I may have sung it at every assembly at Hearst Elementary, the all-Black school I attended from ages 3 to 6. I cannot recall a time when I did not sing or at least hear “Lift Every Voice and Sing” or even when I first learned to sing this hallowed hymn. What can this song mean for a nation in peril? The prospect of a new life for this hymn heard in churches and assemblies across the country at once causes me discomfort and piques my interest. Clyburn proposed that “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” popularly accepted as the national anthem of Black people in the United States, be adopted as a new “national hymn”-a symbolic bid to foster healing in a divided nation. Trump’s presidency, House Majority Whip James E. I worry about losing the rituals of belonging and becoming that shape our vastly varying identities and draw us together. As a child I stood, hand on heart, pledging allegiance to the flag and singing about “bombs bursting in air.” I can never remember which lines come first in our national anthem: “gallantly streaming” or “twilight’s last gleaming”? While these patriotic customs may be more contentious these days I find them valuable, especially now as an adult.

Lift every voice and sing choir