Black Music Sunday: Lift every voice for the Black national anthem

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Brothers John Rosamond Johnson and James Weldon Johnson are not household names in much of the United States, especially among white people. The Johnsons are the authors of what was known as the negro national anthem, which later was changed to the Black national anthem, which nowadays is known as “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

The story of how the song got to be the hallowed anthem it is today dates back to 1900.

RELATED STORY: Lift Every Voice and Sing for Black History

”Black Music Sunday” is a weekly series highlighting all things Black music, with over 220 stories covering performers, genres, history, and more, each featuring its own vibrant soundtrack. I hope you’ll find some familiar tunes and perhaps an introduction to something new.

Meet John Rosamond Johnson:

John Rosamond Johnson

“A native of Jacksonville, John Rosamond Johnson was a musical prodigy–at age 4, he was an accomplished pianist. After studying at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Johnson returned to Jacksonville and served for a time as the musical director of the Bethel Baptist church.

In 1905, Rosamond set a poem written five years earlier by his talented brother, James Weldon Johnson, to music. The NAACP later adopted "Lift Up Ev'ry Voice and Sing" as "the Negro national anthem."

[...]

While in New York, Johnson met numerous luminaries in the music field, most notably Oscar Hammerstein, who would ultimately help shape his career. He also met and teamed up with gifted singer/songwriter Bob Cole, of Atlanta. For seven years, the pair toured as "Cole and Johnson," and wrote and published more than 200 songs, including Under the Bamboo Tree, which sold more than 400,000 copies, making it one of the nation's most popular tunes.”

James Weldon Johnson was equally as talented as his brother in multiple disciplines and careers:

Born in Jacksonville in 1871, Johnson led a remarkable life and career that cast him as an emblematic figure in America's early-20th Century struggle with a racist and segregated society. For millions of black Americans of his day, Johnson stood as one of the nation's most revered beacons of hope for a better future.

James Weldon Johnson

In 1887, Johnson enrolled at Atlanta University where he distinguished himself in writing and as an orator. He eventually earned a graduate degree while founding a short-lived but notable campus newspaper, Daily American. As editor, Weldon showed a zeal for political activism. After returning to Florida in 1897, he soon launched a bold new career path, becoming the first African American to be admitted to the Florida Bar since Reconstruction.

But his broad interests and gifts–principally in poetry and music–steered him away from a typical law career. In 1901, he moved to New York to join his younger (by two years) brother, John Rosamond Johnson, a musical prodigy destined for his own outstanding career. For the next few years, Weldon traveled with his brother's popular music trio and helped write many of their songs. In 1905, Rosamond set to music a poem his brother had written (in 1899) and the result was "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing." The song became hugely popular among black congregations, and by the 1920s was being called "The Negro National Anthem."

Juan Benn Jr, wrote for the BBC about the origins of the song:

When he wrote it in 1900, the scholar and poet James Weldon Johnson did not set out to create a cultural phenomenon. That year, a group of men in Jacksonville, Florida wanted to honour former US President Abraham Lincoln with a birthday celebration. Johnson's contribution was a poem he asked his younger brother, John Rosamond Johnson, to write the accompanying score. When it was complete, James taught the song's lyrics to a choir of 500 black children, all students at the segregated school he was the principal of at the time. On the day of the event, the brothers brought printed copies of the words to share with the community so others could sing along. "The lines of this song repay me in an elation, almost of exquisite anguish," wrote James in an excerpt from a 1935 collection of poems.

Here’s a clip from a not-yet-completed documentary on the Johnson brothers:

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In 2017, theGrio posted a feature on the song’s history:

YouTube Video

I learned to sing it when my parents moved us from Brooklyn, New York, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1957, where I attended an all-Black school for the first time:

Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, in the 1950s, the only anthem I had ever heard was the national one, sung at my almost all-white school, P.S. 138. My parents’ leftist friends had debates about singing it—or saluting the flag, though I didn’t dare make waves about it in assembly.

We left New York in 1957 to move to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where my dad had gotten a job teaching at Southern University, an HBCU. For the first time in my life, I attended an all-black grade school. It was a campus “lab school” for the children of staff and faculty, which trained student teachers. First day of class, we rose, saluted the flag, and then the students and teachers began to sing. There was no “Oh, say can you see.” There was, “Lift every, voice and sing … Till earth and heaven ring … Ring with the harmonies of Liberty ...” and I was confused and embarrassed to stand there silently. After it ended, I asked one of the student teachers what the song was. She looked at me, surprised, and said, “That’s our anthem. The Negro National Anthem.“

When I went home that afternoon I told my mom what had happened and to my surprise, she recited the words of the song, and then sang it. She told me that they always sang it at West Virginia State College, the HBCU she had graduated from. Somehow, she had forgotten to teach it to me.

Here are James Weldon Johnson’s lyrics:

Lift every voice and sing, Till 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 till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod, Bitter the chast’ning 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, Till 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 hast brought us thus far on the way; Thou who hast 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.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who graduated from HBCU Howard University, is familiar with this anthem and it was used to honor her when she was sworn as vice president:

The bell at @HowardU, VP @KamalaHarris’ alma mater is ringing 49 times as she’s sworn in as the 49th Vice President of the United States. It will be followed by “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, the Black national anthem. pic.twitter.com/p2Jj6rXGwI

— Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García (@GarciaReports) January 20, 2021

Here’s Howard University’s choir with a virtual performance of the song:

YouTube Video

South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn introduced a bill in 2021 to make the song the national hymn of the United States. He told ABC News:

"To make it a national hymn, I think, would be an act of bringing the country together. It would say to people, 'You aren't singing a separate national anthem, you are singing the country's national hymn,'" the South Carolina Democrat told USA Today. "The gesture itself would be an act of healing. Everybody can identify with that song."

A wide selection of Black artists have performed it over the years. Here’s a sampling:

Ray Charles:

YouTube Video

The Reverend Kirk Franklin:

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Beyoncé:

YouTube Video

Alicia Keys:

YouTube Video

Sheryl Lee Ralph’s powerful 2023 Super Bowl performance:

Sheryl Lee Ralph looked and sounded amazing, singing "The Black National Anthem" 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' during the Superbowl pre-game show, which happens to also be 123 years to the date, when the hymn was first publicly sung! pic.twitter.com/8RPvD5YCkn

— The Hillman Files (@thehillmanfiles) February 12, 2023

I’m curious. When did you first hear or learn this anthem?

In closing, as we move toward a new day in the upcoming election, “Let us march on till victory is won!”

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