Lift Every Voice and Sing, also known as the Black National Anthem was written by brothers James Weldon Johnson (lyrics), and John Rosamond Johnson (music). It was first recited in 1900 by 500 children at a segregated school in Jacksonville, Florida celebrating the anniversary of the birth of President Lincoln.
lyrics
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.
credits
from Lift Every Voice and Sing,
released February 13, 2022
Ivette Torres-Albano - Production, piano, guitar, vocals, mixing & vocals
EVT Kids is me (Ivette Torres-Albano), Elise and Elena's mommy. I’m a Bilingual Literacy Through Music teacher in a NYC
Public School and I record kids music as EVT Kids. Elise and Elena often sing on the songs and my husband Tom plays bass on the songs. Tom and I also record our own original music as The EVT Band....more
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