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 brought us.

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.

In junior high, there were only a handful of black girls in my choir class. For one of our assemblies (maybe it was for Black History Month? though I doubt it) our choir sang the Black National Anthem or "Lift Every Voice and Sing." I remember being amazed at those few black girls who already knew the song when I never even knew it existed. As a young and patriotic American I remember wondering why they needed an additional national anthem. Though I was happy to sing along with them, I'm sure it didn't mean as much to me as it did to them.

While I was in high school, Black History Month merely meant someone shared a sort of inspirational quote as part of the daily announcements over the PA system during the short month of February. And I can't remember hearing anything about it at BYU--not that there was nothing, but I didn't hear about it.

Black History Month is certainly celebrated in Washington, DC. It's been neat to see some of the things that go on here over the last two years. Just a few weeks ago the boy I tutor, David, talked about his class visit to the Lincoln Theater in Washington, DC. His class sang songs--mostly folk-type--and one of them happened to be "Lift Every Voice and Sing," which was probably in preparation for Black History Month. David started singing the song to me. I was amazed when he started clumsily singing the words (he's not from here so he didn't know the song) and I was able to jump in with no trouble remembering the melody and with little trouble remembering the words. After 10 years the song reappeared in my mind as if it was ever present there.

The point of this is story is not about me; this is about the song itself and the message it delivers. I think there's a reason why this song has lingered in my memory while I've forgotten so many others. The music and lyrics are simple, which make it easy to commit the song to memory. Most importantly though, the lyrics carry a powerful meaning. I'm certainly not Black and I can never really empathize with their struggle for equality. However, I can follow the urging of the lyrics to "lift every voice and sing." The dark past that is referenced was not my own, but the present and future are full of hope* for everyone, including me.

beck

*not meant to imply any kind of Obama hope. It's a little sad to me how that concept is a bit tainted now by his campaign.