Black History Month Video: Lift and Every Voice and Sing

Lift Every Voice and Sing (1900) was written by James Weldon Johnson for a presentation in celebration of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. The music was composed by his brother and songwriting partner, J. Rosamond Johnson. The song was originally performed in Jacksonville, Florida, by children. The popular title for this work is The Black National Anthem. 

This rendition is by the Metropolitan Baptist Church on 1/18/09 in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. 

You can find the words below the video.

 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 died?

We have come over a way that with tears have 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.