James Weldon Johnson The Black National Anthem Lyrics

The Black National Anthem Lyrics

Song title: Lift ev'ry voice and sing

Also known as: The Black National
Anthem

Also known as: The Negro National Anthem



Lift ev'ry
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
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.