This poem by James Weldon Johnson, set to music by his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, and designated as an anthem to inspire Blacks by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was created for Black people burdened by racial injustice in the United States. The first stanza of the song challenges the people to sing enthusiastically. Singing is to fill the minds of Black Americans with the vigor and endurance necessary to pursue justice. They are to sing loudly so that the sound reverberates near and far. The opening stanza is a call for an act (singing) of praise.
One chooses to sing. To do so is to declare that one is in control of one’s own mind. Singing is an act of personal will. One sings because it generates energy. Singing can produce boldness and fervor. To sing is to overcome the lurking toxicity that turbulence emits. Singing causes wronged people to focus on that which is unfolding for the good as well as the terrible. To sing is to make a declaration of self-worth. Singing makes the spirit within endure, step forward and climb up.
Johnson’s lyrics encourage people to sing until an urge to sing falls upon those nearby and distant. The resolve to sing saves one from wallowing in the quicksand of despair; the song lifts one for a time above the struggle. To sing a song when there is the expectation that one will wail in agony is a profound act of courage. To sing is to give a tangible shape to hope and faith. The voices of a multitude singing with one mind exhilarates all present. The singing signifies a consciousness of progress thus far and strength to continue the work of justice for all.
James Weldon Johnson is audacious in his requirement that a people, smothered by racial, economic, and political injustice, sing. The specter of trouble may not be the same for all; however, injustice to any degree is intolerable. The people are charged to sing continuously with a mindset of hope. The singing is in celebration of past, present, and future progress.
The triumph of liberty and justice shall be realized. Sing until victory is won!
Reflections
In 1926, Carter G. Woodson, Ph.D. (1875-1950) developed Negro History Week to highlight the achievement of Black people. He chose February as the month of celebration to honor the birthdays of Frederick Douglas, who escaped slavery and sought freedom for others, and President Abraham Lincoln who signed the Emancipation Proclamation which set free all slaves in the United States.
Real education means to inspire people to live more abundantly, to learn to begin with life as they find it and make it better.
Carter G. Woodson, The Mis-Education of the Negro, 1933.
Lift Every Voice and Sing, stanza 1
James Weldon Johnson, lyrics and J. Rosamond Johnson, music
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.
Dorothy Watson Tatem, D.Min., ACC
Senior Associate
Next Step Associates, LLC
Cassandra W. Jones, Ed.D.
CEO & President
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