Lift Every Voice and Sing, written as a poem by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson in 1900, is often referred to as the Black National Anthem. It’s uplifting, spiritual message calls us to sing “Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty….Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, let us march on till victory is won.” Though befitting earlier times in our history, it may no longer represent the feelings and desires of a people betrayed by over-pious hopes and dreams. Though this writer admires the sentiment, it’s not the anthem that resounds in my head.
Definitions of an anthem center on it being “rousing or uplifting” as seen in the references below.
Merriam Webster 1) a rousing or uplifting song identified with a particular group, body, or cause. or 2) a choral composition based on a biblical passage, for singing by a choir in a church service.
Cambridge Dictionary: a song that has special importance for a particular group of people, an organization, or a country, often sung on a special occasion.
Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries – a song that has a special importance for a country, an organization or a particular group of people.
Oxford English Dictionary – A rousing or uplifting popular song, esp. one associated with, or with lasting appeal for, a particular group of people.
I contend that anthems like Lift Every Voice, A Change is Gonna Come (Sam Cooke), and We Shall Overcome no longer resonate with the realities of generations of oppression, discrimination, police brutality and gentrification. Waiting for a Kumbaya moment probably isn’t going to happen. Author James Baldwin might even refer to this as magical Black BS thinking. If slavery and Jim Crow weren’t enough to convince us – or the backlash from a Black President didn’t open your eyes – maybe Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Harris, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, Breonna Taylor, or George Floyd could tell you a thing or two if they were still with us.
So, what’s your Black anthem? Step outside the confines of it having to be inspirational or aspirational and allow it to be confrontational, thought provoking, and an expression of what rouses you. Would it be in your face like F*** the Police (N.W.A) or Fight the Power (Public Enemy)? Maybe it would pose the question What’s Going on? (Marvin Gaye) or recognize that’s its special to be Young, Gifted and Black (Nina Simone). It might even be the song I claim as my Black Anthem, Winter in America (Gil Scott-Heron).
Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson recorded the album
Winter in America in
1973 amidst the ending of the war in Vietnam, the Watergate Scandal, and Wounded Knee. It could easily fit today’s climate among warnings of a constitutional crisis or the death of democracy. How fitting is the verse below to today’s headlines:The Constitution, a noble piece of paper
With free society
Struggled but they died in vain
And now democracy is ragtime on the corner
Hopin’ for some rain
The editors and contributors of The DC Voice want to know your Black anthem. What’s the song that resonates with you? Maybe it’s not a song. It could be a poem like Still I Rise (Maya Angelou) waiting to be set to music like Lift Every Voice was. Whatever it is, let us know by visiting us on
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X. Whether it’s inspirational, aspirational, confrontational, questioning, or thought provoking, it’s going to be Alright (Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell Williams, and Mark Spears).
We’re waiting to hear from you!
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Featured image/photo by John Onaeko on Unsplash.
