Lift Ev'ry Voice & Sing (Black National Anthem) performed by Kim Weston in 1972

I learned this way back in elementary school & can remember singing it before every assembly, performance, etc., until I graduated high school.

Words:James Weldon Johnson, 1899

Born: June 17, 1871, Jacksonville, Florida.

Died: June 26, 1938, Wiscasset, Maine, in a car accident.

Buried: Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.

Music:John Rosamond Johnson

Born: August 11, 1873, Jacksonville, Florida.

Died: November 11, 1954, New York, New York.

Brother of composer John Johnson, James studied literature at Atlanta University (graduated 1894, M.A. 1904), and went on to become a song writer, anthologist, teacher, and lawyer; he was the first African American to pass the bar in the state of Florida. In 1906 he became the American consul in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, and in 1909, consul in Corinto, Nicaragua. In 1920, he was appointed Executive Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

John R. Johnson attended Atlanta University and the New England Conservatory of Music. He and his brother James belonged to the song writing team of Cole and Johnson Brothers, writing over 200 songs. He also edited a number of collections of African American music.

Originally written by Johnson for a presentation in celebration of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. This was originally performed in Jacksonville, Florida, by children. The popular title for this work is:

'THE NEGRO NATIONAL ANTHEM'

Lift ev'ry 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.
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,
'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 meet 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.