Lift Every Voice and Sing Lyrics, Story, and Video – Lyrics, Videos and Stories Behind Hymns

Lift Every Voice and Sing Lyrics

1 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.

2 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 people sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered.
We have come, treading our path thro’ the blood of the slaughtered,
out from the gloomy past,
till now we stand at last
where the bright gleam of our bright star is cast.

3 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.

Lift Every Voice and Sing Hymn Story

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” is a Christian hymn that was composed by James Weldon Johnson. It was first published in 1900. The tune for this hymn is called, “LIFT EVERY VOICE”.

It is James’s brother, J Rosamond Johnson who wrote the music to the poem by James Weldon Johnson.

Johnson wrote this song in honor of Booker T Washington who had visited the school where Johson taught.

Booker T Washington had heard it as a poem that was recited by the students in a tribute to Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.

This song is now considered a National Anthem for black Americans.