Lift Every Voice and Sing

Lift Every Voice and Sing

Sheet music of "Lift Every Voice and Sing"
Also known as	Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing
Lyrics	James Weldon Johnson, 1900 (1900)
Music	J. Rosamond Johnson, 1900 (1900)
Audio sample
"Lift Every Voice and Sing" performed by the United States Navy Band, 2021 file help

"Lift Every Voice and Sing" is a hymn with lyrics by James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) and set to music by his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson (1873–1954). Written from the context of African Americans in the late 19th century, the hymn is a prayer of thanksgiving to God as well as a prayer for faithfulness and freedom, with imagery that evokes the biblical Exodus from slavery to the freedom of the "promised land."

Premiered in 1900, "Lift Every Voice and Sing" was communally sung within Black American communities, while the NAACP began to promote the hymn as a "Negro national anthem" in 1917 (with the term "Black national anthem" similarly used in the present day). It has been featured in 42 different Christian hymnals,^[1] and it has also been performed by various African American singers and musicians. Its prominence has increased since 2020 following the George Floyd protests; in 2021, then House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn sponsored a bill proposing that "Lift Every Voice and Sing" be designated as the "national hymn" of the United States.^[2]