Lift
Every Voice and Sing:
A Celebration of the Negro National Anthem
Edited By Julian Bond and Sondra Kathryn Wilson
Random House, $29.95
ISBN 0679463151
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REVIEW BY
ROBERT FLEMING
When the Johnson brothers,
James Weldon and Rosamond, wrote the song, "Lift Every Voice And Sing,"
in 1900 to honor President Lincoln's birthday, they certainly had no
idea how important their creation would be to future generations of
African Americans. In a glowing new collection that celebrates the 100th
anniversary of the anthem, 100 voices have been assembled to comment on
the song's influence on their lives and on the state of race relations
in the nation.
The Johnson's intended the
inspirational song to serve as a musical protest against the
humiliating conditions of Jim Crow and the bloody wave of racial
lynchings that were sweeping the country. The book's editors, NAACP
Chairman Julian Bond, a veteran civil rights activist, and Sondra
Kathryn Wilson, literary executor of the James Weldon Johnson estate,
work hard to keep the historical angle front and center.
Following an informative
introduction by the editors, the authors let each of the assembled
voices speak in brief essays.
Historian John Hope
Franklin reminisces about his days as a young Fisk University
student when he heard James Weldon Johnson dramatically recite the
song's lyrics during one of his lectures. Poet Maya Angelou tells
how the residents of her impoverished hometown of Stamps,
Arkansas, would cry when singing the song, thinking of what
opportunities time could bring for their children. Entertainer
Harry Belafonte praises the song's "dual message of the dark past
of slavery and hope." Former U.S. Senator Ed Brooke remembers how
the song revived the sagging spirits of the enlisted men and
officers of the segregated Negro 366th Infantry Combat regiment
fighting in Italy during the Second World War.
The collective impact
of the tribute is supported by an eye-catching collection of
photographs from the fabled archives of the Schomberg Center for
Black Research in Harlem, many of them never previously viewed.
Lift Every
Voice And Sing is
highly recommended for those interested in African American
history, the growing pains of democracy and America as a
glorious work in progress.
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