Lift Every Voice and Sing: Hope, Resistance and Freedom

Lift Every Voice and Sing
(Black National Anthem)
J. Rosamond Johnson/James Weldon Johnson

Lift ev’ry voice and sing
‘Til earth and heaven ring
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list’ning 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 ‘til victory is won
–Verse 1

Beloved Community,

Community Renewal Society congratulates President-elect Joseph Robinette (Joe) Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Devi Harris.

In this historic moment, I reflect on the lyrical and prophetic message of James Weldon Johnson’s Black National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing. I am thinking of how the late Rev. Joseph E. Lowery used it as an invocation during the inauguration of President Barack H. Obama and how I felt goosebumps with his recitation. All of the years singing those lyrics as a child in Sunday School, at a Black History Month or Kwanzaa event, and yes, at my alma mater, Howard University, came flooding back to me. Dr. Lowery introduced the world to that sacred hymn, but for many of us, it was a familiar song that we held close to our bosom for generations upon generations, offering us hope, affirming our resilience and resistance, and affirming Black diasporic oral record, too often excluded from the canons of history. The song is ubiquitous in Black culture and aptly serves as a call to worship, a call to action, and a benediction. Among other rituals and rites-of-passages, the hymn signifies hopes, prayers, lessons and lamentations of the oppressed.

During the weekend following the election, with the projection of Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris’ successful run for executive office, the song resonated powerfully for me as a womanist, Black woman of color, organizer, HBCU alumna (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), and also as a member of the Divine Nine. This was especially poignant in the grim wake of loss due to a racial and health pandemic that continues to disproportionately affect marginalized communities in our city of Chicago, our nation and our world.

The bitterness of racism in America and the injustice of poverty is a persistent foe, uncloaked of its sheets and burning crosses in the hidden mystery of the night. Now, such pestilence unapologetically sits at the resolute desk of the White House, gas lighting those who fear progress, equity, inclusion, science and the side of love. Here we are in a new moment with an opportunity to be audacious in our pursuit of justice. Here we are on the eve of hope, daringly electing a Black woman with Caribbean and Asian ancestry to serve as Vice President of the United States of America. Here we are with an incoming administration boldly including racial equity, transgender rights, climate change and poverty among its top priorities for day one in office. How could we not lift every voice and sing?

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 [ancestors] sighed?
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
–Verse 2

We will allow our rejoicing to rise in this unprecedented moment, recognizing the power of Black women, grassroots organizing and heroic volunteers who faced COVID-19 to ensure ballots were cast, mailed and counted. We will honor the Movement for Black Lives and Black Lives Matter for insisting that candidates say their names and put forth an agenda that affirms Black humanity, Black voices and the burdensome struggle for Black bodies to carry the weight of the lynching tree upon our backs while still organizing to get out the vote. These are the courageous ones marching for Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade and George Floyd; fighting for PPE (personal protective equipment) and healthcare amidst COVID-19; and fighting to dismantle systemic injustices of police brutality and poverty. I humbly say thank you.

Let us rejoice and lest we forget the weary paths and silent tears of those like: Stacey Abrams, Maya Angelou, Ella Baker, Gwendolyn Brooks, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Katie Cannon, Iva B. Carruthers, Shirley Chisolm, Septima Clark, Anna Julia Cooper, Angela Davis, Fania Davis, Patrisse Cullors, Yvonne Delk, Marian Wright Edelman, Brittany Ferrell, Alicia Garza, Nikki Giovanni, Fannie Lou Hamer, Lorraine Hansberry, Anita Hill, bell hooks, Mary Hooks, Coretta Scott King, Henrietta Lacks, Nicole Lee, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Rosa Parks, Sonia Sanchez, Betty Shabazz, Assata Shakur, Ntozake Shange, Nina Simone, Mary Church Terrell, Opal Tometi, Emilie Maureen Townes, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Alice Walker, Tanya Watkins, Ida B. Wells, Delores Williams, the mourning mothers of the stolen ones (Aiyana Jones, Laquan McDonald, Tamir Rice, Amadou Diallo, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Jordan Davis, Michael Brown, Emmett Till, George Stinney, Jr. …), the midwives on slave ships, plantations and in the brush arbors, each giving birth to this brilliant moment the world beholds, fulfilling the incessant prayers, boundless vision and wildest dreams of their ancestors. And there are so many more, unknown. We honor their works, labor, sacrifice, courage, wisdom, creativity and prayers.

We must say their names. We must honor her outspokenness on the racial divisiveness across America while demanding reform. We honor her intersectional advocacy and ways the Black woman has brought attention to race, class, orientation, gender, ability, and the like, while facing the powers that be and the dangers and risks in challenging the status quo.

Today, we celebrate and we must continue to challenge systems of oppression. The election of our new administration does not make us any more post-racial as the election of President Obama, the first Black person to serve as United States President, did. We, the Beloved Community, must not concede. We must remain steadfast on the path towards love, justice, and mercy that God has set before us. With this new administration, we pray for affordable and accessible health care, education reform, racial equity, police reform and accountability, and true equitable distribution of wealth. Let us lift every voice and sing! And, let us march on until victory is won!

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.
–Verse 3

In Solidarity,

Rev. Dr. Waltrina Middleton
Executive Director

P.S. Join Community Renewal Society in our mission to eradicate racism and poverty. President-elect Biden has chosen racial and economic equity as two of his top agenda items for day one in the White House. Support our organizers and policy team in their work by donating today.