Lift every voice for the Black national anthem

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:

“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.

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:

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

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:

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

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:

The Reverend Kirk Franklin:

Beyoncé:

Alicia Keys:

Sheryl Lee Ralph’s powerful 2023 Super Bowl performance:

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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