Lift Every Voice and Sing – Unaccompanied Violin Solo

Description

Often called “The Black National Anthem”, the poetry was written by the NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson and later set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson.

Lift Every Voice and Sing

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,

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, 'Til 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!

Thank you to Baohm at pixabay for the image