Lift Every Voice and Sing is a song whose lyrics were written by the African American author James Weldon Johnson . The work has played an important role in black culture. Johnson wrote the lyrics as a poem in 1900 to commemorate the birthday of United States President Abraham Lincoln . Johnson’s brother J. Rosamond Johnson composed the music. African Americans throughout the United States found the song version an inspiration as soon as it was performed publicly. Around 1920, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) adopted “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as its official song. It was also known as the Negro National Anthem.
Johnson’s poem follows:
Lift every voice and sing, till 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 till 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, 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.
See also African American literature .
