Lift Every Voice and Sing | The Tabernacle Choir

On May 20, 2018, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) attended The Tabernacle Choir’s weekly Music and the Spoken Word broadcast. Members of the National Board of Directors of the NAACP and the NAACP Foundation were in Salt Lake City for their board meetings, which were held in Salt Lake City for the first time. They also met with the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and made a joint statement to the media calling for “greater civility and racial harmony.”

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” was written in 1900, when a school principal and poet, James Weldon Johnson, was invited to speak to a crowd in Jacksonville, Florida, for the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. To introduce the honored guest, Booker T. Washington, Johnson decided to write a poem. On February 12, 1900, 500 schoolchildren at the segregated Stanton School in Jacksonville, where Johnson was principal, recited “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Stanton's brother John wrote the music to accompany the poem in 1905.

Lyrics:
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

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 fathers sighed?

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered
Out from the gloomy past
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast

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
Our native land

“Lift Every Voice and Sing”: © 1978 by MarVel. All rights reserved.

[scotswarrior]

Solidarity to all African American comrades, from Scotland!

[glennfromthebronx]

...if we BELIEVE these words as we sing them....things WILL change.

[patriciajaynes]

Wonderful. I much prefer this to some of the newer, modern arrangements. I grew grew up listening to arrangements closer to this one. Thank you.

[kayhunt]

Roland Carter's arrangement is gorgeous.

[tabeakalimeris]

Lyrics

Lift every voice and sing,
Till 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 till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast’ning 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 fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered.
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

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.

[clandyjeur]

STAND together with your family forever the rest of your life, because GOD but together two people to see and to hold and to learn, LOVE, CARE AND PROTECTS FOREVER. Live right, think right and speak right. IN JESUS CHRIST NAME THROUGHOUT TO OUR PRECIOUS HEAVENLY FATHER'S

[kauefelipe]

gente sou do Brasil e sou mormo. da estaca Teresina Brazil planalto e tenho muito orgulho de ser mormon por ter um grande coral desses na igreja aqui no Piauí também temos um bom mais não chega a isso tudo

[juancarloslasalle]

Felicitaciones por su coro. Tengo discos de ustedes bajo la dirección de Eugene Ormandy. Saludos desde Córdoba Veracruz México

[jaqenhghar]

I would of preferred they sang "Deep River" instead. It's a beautiful yet haunting black-American spiritual.

[JoelERea]

To the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: _please_ add this hymn to the new _Hymns_ hymnal you’re working on! Use a regular hymnal arrangement as found in various African-American church hymnals, not this Roland Carter arrangement, of course.

[kbaylor]

I was looking for a version where I could actually hear the melody over the embellishments. Should have started the search with MTC, what was I thinking!

[sandybennett]

A great but very difficult song to sing.

[sheltv]

If I could start up the classical music division of Motown Records, I would record this and sell it.

[kauefelipe]

queria saber como se faz para fazer parte do coro do tabernáculo