Lift Every Voice

 

 

 

 

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…

 

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

 

Lift Every Voice and Sing

James Weldon Johnson, J. Rosamond Johnson

 

Several major sports leagues are lurching toward reopening play, including the National Basketball Association. In keeping with the current emphasis on racial justice and equality the plan it to play a song sometimes termed the Black National Anthem before Game 1 for each franchise. The piece is called Lift Every Voice and Sing, and I have to admit that I'd never been aware of its significance before this announcement, although I have heard it.

Lift Every Voice and Sing was first performed on the birthday of Abraham Lincoln in 1900 and the words are inspiring and spiritual. It was written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson and set to music by his brother, J Rosamond Johnson. It is a celebration of freedom, a recognition of the hardships of slavery, and a hymn of praise to the God who guides us all. It is patriotic but puts God first as the source of strength for the journey. There is a sense of the biblical exodus in that final verse..

Here is an amazing contemporary rendition of Lift Every Voice.and Sing. Such talent! Such youthful exuberance!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qRhteE1fzc