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Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing — often called "the Black National Anthem" — was written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) and then set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954) in 1899. It was first performed in public in the Johnsons' hometown of Jacksonville, Florida as part of a celebration of Lincoln's Birthday on February 12, 1900 by a choir composed of 500 schoolchildren at the segregated Stanton School, where James Weldon Johnson was principal. This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... James Weldon Johnson, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1932 James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 - June 26, 1938) was a leading African American author, poet, early civil rights activist, and prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance. ... 1871 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1933 photograph of J. Rosamond Johnson by Carl Van Vechten John Rosamond Johnson (1873–1954), most often referred to as J. Rosamond Johnson, was a composer and singer during the Harlem Renaissance. ... 1873 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calaber). ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1899 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... The Jacksonville skyline and the Acosta Bridge. ... Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), sometimes called Abe Lincoln and nicknamed Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter, and the Great Emancipator, was the 16th President of the United States (1861 to 1865), and the first president from the Republican Party. ... February 12 is the 43rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1900 (MCM) is a common year starting on Monday. ...

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 subtly speak out against racism and Jim Crow laws — and especially the huge number of lynchings that were 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. African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or black Americans, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan and West Africa. ... An African-American man drinks out of the colored only water fountain at a racially segregated streetcar terminal in the United States in 1939. ... Jim Crow may refer to: Jim Crow, the title character of the song Jump Jim Crow, performed by Thomas D. Rice beginning in 1828; The Jim Crow laws of the United States used to enforce racial segregation; Jim Crow, a character from the 1941 film Dumbo named for the Rice... Lynching is violence, usually murder, conceived by its perpetrators as extra-legal execution, or used as a terrorist method of enforcing social domination. ... Members of the second Ku Klux Klan at a rally during the 1920s. ... 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, is one of the oldest and most influential (although a racist group) civil rights organizations in the United States. ... Sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or primarily in North America and in Australia as the Roaring Twenties . In Europe it is sometimes refered to as the Golden Twenties. ... The term Blacks is often used in the West to denote race for persons whose progenitors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan Africa. ...

During and after the Civil rights movement, the song experienced a rebirth, and by the 1970s it was often sung immediately after the Star Spangled Banner at public events and performances in cities and towns across the United States when the event had a significant African-American population. Civil Rights Movement in the United States, political, legal, and social struggle to gain full citizenship rights for African American and to achieve racial equality. ... The 1970s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1970 and 1979. ... Nicholson took the copy Key gave him to a printer, where it was published as a broadside on September 17 under the title The Defence of Fort McHenry, with an explanatory note explaining the circumstances of its writing. ...

The verse most commonly heard is the first verse:

Lift ev'ry voice and sing,

'Til 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 'til victory is won.

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 sighed?

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.

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.

See also

• James Weldon Johnson

James Weldon Johnson, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1932 James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 - June 26, 1938) was a leading African American author, poet, early civil rights activist, and prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance. ...

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.