National Hymn:
“Lift Every Voice and Sing”
The month of February is Black History Month. That means we will be singing the Black National Anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” But Congressman James Clyburn [D-South Carolina, the third-highest Democrat in the House and its highest-ranking Black member] believes it is time for it to be honored as the official National Hymn. He feels the gesture itself would be an act of healing and that everybody can identify with this hymn [The lyrics are at the bottom of this page].
James Weldon Johnson
This hymn was written as a poem by former NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson [1871-1938] and then set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson [1873-1954] in 1899. It was first performed in public in the Johnsons’ hometown of Jacksonville, Florida as part of a celebration of Lincoln’s Birthday on February 12, 1900, by a choir of 500 schoolchildren at the segregated Stanton School. As the hymn was shared within the Black community its popularity grew throughout the country mostly out of during a fraught moment in African American history. At the dawn of the 20th century, post-Civil War reconstruction efforts were being dismantled; segregation had been codified through Plessy v Ferguson; and a Jim Crow reign of terror and exploitation was taking hold across the country.
Rep. Clyburn has a proposal to upgrade “Lift Every Voice and Sing” to equal standing with the national anthem. He said the change would tell Black people, “you aren’t singing a separate national anthem, you are singing the country’s national hymn.” This would not take away from “The Star-Spangled Banner” - the United States National Anthem.
“The Star-Spangled Banner” has been regarding discriminating by how it is often-omitted the third stanza glorifies slavery. Some may remember Colin Kaepernick taking the knee protest. The NFL acknowledged this summer it previously mishandled player protests during the national anthem, the NFL decided to play "Lift Every Voice and Sing" before every Week 1 game this year. Before 2020, the NFL had taken a strong stance against its players kneeling during the national anthem in protest of racism, with the likes of Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid suing the league for colluding against them in contract talks following their gestures. Reid has since returned to the field, but Kaepernick has not found a home since the 49ers persuaded him to leave in 2017.
Congress made the “Star-Spangled Banner” as the United States National Anthem in 1931. Some people do not care for it. It is difficult to sing [three-octave range] and seems warlike to some. Therefore, there has been some restlessness about it and looking further for a replacement. However, it’s pretty entrenched in our culture now. Before then, “America [My Country, Tis of Thee]” was the unofficial anthem. There are unofficial National Hymns in the United States’ culture. Known hymns like:
America The Beautiful
God Bless America
Battle Hymn of the Republic
Like “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and our National Anthem, “America the Beautiful” first started out as a poem written by Katharine Lee bates in 1893 inspired by a train trip. Later Samuel Ward put her words to music. The two never met. Several of the sights on her trip inspired her, and they found their way into her poem, including the World’s Columbian Exposition [World’s Fair] in Chicago, the "White City" with its promise of the future contained within its “gleaming white” buildings; the “Amber Waves” wheat fields of America's heartland Kansas, and the “Purple mountain majesties” referring to the shade of the Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
By 1900, at least 75 different melodies had been written. You can sing these lyrics to the melody of “ Auld Lang Syne.” The most recent add-on was Ray Charles's version at President Regan’s Presidential Ball in 1981.
This song tells mostly about the land but then adds brotherhood and liberty is the gift.
“God Bless America" is an American patriotic song written by Irving Berlin during World War I in 1918 and revised by him in the run-up to World War II in 1938. The later version was notably recorded by Kate Smith, becoming her signature song. Its lyrics are about the land is our home.
“Battle Hymn of the Republic” is more about God and Christ than country.
“Lift Every Voice and Sing,” tells that every person is part of the country which makes them a hopeful and faithful people toward a better future regardless of the past hardships in our country.
In 1899, James set out to write a poem commemorating the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. “My thoughts began buzzing around a central idea of writing a poem about Lincoln, but I couldn’t net them,” he wrote in his autobiography, “Along This Way.” Instead, he wrote a poem about Black struggle and perseverance and asked his brother to set his words to music. The result, which moved James himself to tears, captured a painful history of oppression (“Stony the road we trod/ Bitter the chastening rod”) while ending on a note of resilience:
“May we forever stand/ True to our God/
True to our native land.”
This hymn grew by being sung:
In 1929, in support of the unionization of Black porters;
In 1936, it opened the first conference of the National Negro Congress, an anti-fascist organization fighting for Black liberation.
In the 1950s, when the Civil Rights Era began, was sung during organizational meetings for the Montgomery Bus Boycott and quoted in speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Congressman James Clyburn
This hymn is a history lesson, a rallying cry, a pledge of unity, and as people gather to fight for equality and justice, it is an ever-present refrain. It seems Congressman James Clyburn's proposal is warranted and quite rightful.
Lift Every Voice and Sing
By James Weldon Johnson
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 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.