Lift Every Voice and Sing was a poem written by James Weldon Johnson in 1899, and set to music by his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson. One of its earliest performances was a group of some 500 black students who sang it for the anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.
The song was also known as the “Negro National Anthem” when it was written and first performed.
The song is a prayer to, a remembrance of, and a warning not to forget God. It is a beautiful song, and one that should convince us as we sing, especially if we sing all three verses. It was a song for us, by us.
Personally, I really hate to see what a political football it has become. It hurts my heart and angers me to my core to see the left parade it around as some sort of cudgel against White people. It unnerves me to see the right knee jerk and spit on the song altogether as if Ibram X. Kendi and Joy Reid collaborated and wrote it themselves.
It reminds of how Candace Owens speaks so badly about Juneteenth every year. Yes, each year, certain activists and broken people try to make it divisive, but the actual tradition is something that is far from it. It is a beautiful celebration of freedom—though delayed two years—eventually making its way to the slaves in Texas in 1865.
When those on the left take Frederick Douglass’s 4th of July speech out of context every single year, it puts either their ignorance, or wickedness on display. When those on the right respond to such folly by taking the stark opposite stance instead of highlighting the broader context, it displays either more ignorance, or quite frankly, bondage.
The same is true here.
Stop letting corporations who do not have a single ounce of care for any of this to use such a sacred song as a pandering tool for Blacks. Stop letting someone else control your way of thinking. Even if their intentions are impure, it doesn’t always mean that everything they say is false. In fact, the truth inside lies what makes deception so powerful. Learn to do the slow work of sifting through what is true and what isn’t.
Lift Every Voice and Sing is a song for us. It’s a prophetic song that stands today as a witness against us if we truly let the words… all the words into our psyche and spirit.
Ironically, the verse I find the most powerful is the one usually left out:
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.
Meanwhile, the biggest human rights issue of our generation is currently happening all over Africa as Arabs are enslaving Africans in numbers that dwarf the transatlantic slave trade. Perhaps being “true to our native land” has something to do with us, the most successful Black people in the diaspora, speaking up about that.
Enjoy this video of my father speaking more deeply on this.
This is a beautiful hymn, and would be accepted for what it is,but for the politics added to it by groups and organizations who don't give a rats behind about black, white or any Americans. They only care about money and creating ways to have us continue to violently disagree with one another.
-Stop letting corporations who do not have a single ounce of care for any of this to use such a sacred song as a pandering tool for Blacks. Stop letting someone else control your way of thinking.-
Your words are so true and hit the nail on the head. I enjoyed the video your father did. Thank you for your clear insight to this issue.