Will we vote in November???????????????

" Lift Every Voice and Sing"

Lift every voice and sing,
'Til 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 bought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on 'til victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast' ning 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,
'Til 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 has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has 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.

---- James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)


This beautiful poem was written by James Weldon Johnson. "It is often called The Negro National Anthem. "Lift Every Voice and Sing" was publicly performed first as a poem in Jacksonville, Florida as part of a celebration of Lincoln's Birthday on February 12, 1900 by 500 school children at the segregated Staton School. Its principal, James Weldon Johnson, wrote the words to introduce its honored guest Booker T. Washington.

The poem was later set to music by Mr. Johnson's brother, John, in 1905. Singing this song quickly became a way for African Americans to demonstrate their patriotism and hope for the future. In calling for earth and heaven to "ring with the harmonies of Liberty,"they could speak out subtly against racism and Jim Crow laws-- and especially the huge number of lynchings accompanying the rise of the Ku Klux Klan at the turn of the century. In 1919, the NAACP adopted the song as "The Negro National Anthem." By the 1920's, copies of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" could be found in black churches across the country, often pasted into the hymnals.

In 1939, Augusta Savage received a commission from the World's Fair and created a 16 foot tall plaster sculpture called Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing. Savage did not have any funds for a bronze cast, or even to move and store it, and it was destroyed by bulldozers at the close of the fair.(1)

During and after the American Civil Rights Movements, the song experienced a rebirth, and by the 1970s was often sung immediately after "The Star Spangled Banner" at public events and performances across the United States where the event had a significant African - American population.

In Maya Angelou's 1969 autobiography, I know why the Caged Bird Sings, the song is sung by the audience and students at Maya's eighth grade graduation, after a white school official dashes the educational aspirations of her class.(2)

In 1990, singer Melba Moore released a modern rendition of the song, which she recorded along with others including R&B artist Anita Baker, Stephanie Mills, Dionne Warwick, Bobby Brown, Stevie Wonder, Jeffrey Osborne, and Howard Hewett; and gospel artist Bebe and Cece Winans, Take 6, and The Clark Sisters. Partly because of the success of this recording, "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" was entered into the Congressional Recorded as the official African American National Hymn." ----Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Negro National Anthem)


African - Americans have been through terrible things just so we can have the right to vote. I am so afraid that we as African Americans will not come out in record numbers, and vote this November. Yet, still in very large number there are alot of African Americans who have not registerd to vote!!!!!! This is very disappointing, we sit around and complain about the way the world is going, and we do not use our right vote to make the necessary change in the world. We need to register to vote by Oct 4th 2008. I am already registered, are you???? In this historical time of voting, we as Africans Americans need to get up off of our behinds register by October 4th, and vote this November, and every voting season.

We can lift our voices and sing very loudly by using our voice of voting this November. It does not matter which candidates you may have chosen, just vote.

Always waiting to hear from you.


-----Ebony Queen