“Lift Every Voice and Sing”
J. Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954) / James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) / Arr. Bruce Healey

THE STORY

James Weldon Johnson wrote “Lift Every Voice and Sing” to inspire perseverance amidst adversity. With the devastating “separate-but-equal” ruling in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case, Jim Crow segregation began to infiltrate the South, dismantling the African American advancements of the Reconstruction era. So, when plans were laid for civil rights leader Booker T. Washington to visit the segregated Stanton School in Jacksonville, Florida on February 12, 1900, Johnson, who was the school’s principal at the time, wrote a poem to commemorate the important occasion. His brother J. Rosamond Johnson (the school’s music teacher) set the poem to music, bringing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” to life as a hymn. 

Despite its localized beginnings, the hymn rapidly gained popularity throughout the South and eventually the entire nation. Adopted by the NAACP as its official song in 1919, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” remains a symbol of enduring hope for racial justice and equality into the twenty-first century.

LISTEN FOR

• The stately, stepwise melody that leaps up to emphasize lyrics of “rise,” “sun,” “might,” and “hand”

• Triumphal key changes leading to the climax of the song, where punctuations of brass and percussion provide an epic conclusion to the hopeful anthem

INSTRUMENTATION

Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, strings