Consul to Venezuela from 1906 to 1913, and both became active Civil Rights leaders in the NAACP. James took a turn in the diplomatic core, serving as U.S. Rosamond Johnson moved to New York, where they wrote music for Broadway, and Black musical theater productions. The story of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" leads to the story of its creators. That's the only thing that keeps us going really-if we believe that there is a beautiful future to be had." "So whenever I sing it, I am thinking about my ancestors, and I'm thinking about, a dark past but a beautiful future. It's also looking towards the horizon and that's what I love about those lyrics." "It's not only revering, documenting, and validating the African American experience with those lyrics. The music is rousing the words are powerful. “It was one of those tunes I learned-even in middle school and high school, as I sang in those choirs- I would sing them in a choral style, I would sing them solo, I would with a gospel twinge, any program I was singing, maybe that song would be played, so I’ve sung it in so many different ways.” “It was just an institution in the Black community,” she says, describing it as woven throughout her childhood. “I’ve known it since I was a kid, probably five or six,” says singer Laurin Talese, who sang the song with The Philadelphia Orchestra on its digital stage series when live concerts were suspended, and then again to open the Orchestra’s 2021/2022 season. It became known as the Black National Anthem, and in 1919, the NAACP adopted the song, which was sung at school programs, social gatherings and civil rights marches throughout the 20th century. With its soaring melody and words of rejoicing and hope, freedom and faith, and overcoming a dark history of oppression-it spread through 20th century black communities, as people learned it, sang it and taught it to others. The title turned out to be prophetic, as this three-verse song took flight. In a ceremony celebrating the birth of Abraham Lincoln, a chorus of 500 school children sang out the compelling message of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," beginning with: It came to life in its first performance at the high school where James was principal. The now seminal anthem began as a poem-written in 1900 by James Weldon Johnson, a young writer working as a high school principal in Jacksonville, Florida-and set to music by his younger brother, composer J.
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