Uploaded February 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Writer and activist James Weldon Johnson wrote Lift Every Voice and Sing in 1900 as a poem honoring Booker T. Washington. The poem was later put to music by his brother, composer John Rosamond Johnson. It was adopted and promoted by the NAACP as the Black National Anthem in 1919, the same year James Weldon Johnson became Executive Secretary of the organization.
The piece's three stanzas describe the African American community's continued strength through enslavement, emancipation, and the rise of segregation and Jim Crow that forced them into second-class citizenship.
This was important in the early 20th century. The threat of white supremacy violence colored life for Black Americans, especially the use of lynching as a tool of suppression and control. Despite this reality, Black American communities continued to march forward and in defense of themselves, with heads held high toward the full freedom and equality promised to them as American citizens.
Performed by: X. Alexander Durden – The Henry Ford’s Manager of Theatrical and Musical Experiences
Discover more: thehenryford.org/current-events/calendar/black-history-month-celebration
Writer and activist James Weldon Johnson wrote Lift Every Voice and Sing in 1900 as a poem honoring Booker T. Washington. The poem was later put to music by his brother, composer John Rosamond Johnson. It was adopted and promoted by the NAACP as the Black National Anthem in 1919, the same year James Weldon Johnson became Executive Secretary of the organization.
The piece's three stanzas describe the African American community's continued strength through enslavement, emancipation, and the rise of segregation and Jim Crow that forced them into second-class citizenship.
This was important in the early 20th century. The threat of white supremacy violence colored life for Black Americans, especially the use of lynching as a tool of suppression and control. Despite this reality, Black American communities continued to march forward and in defense of themselves, with heads held high toward the full freedom and equality promised to them as American citizens.
Performed by: X. Alexander Durden – The Henry Ford’s Manager of Theatrical and Musical Experiences
Discover more: thehenryford.org/current-events/calendar/black-history-month-celebration
