The Black National Anthem: “With Faith Unbroken” by Sarah Erckenbrack
- Watts72
- Jun 5, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 6, 2023
It was a bright, sunny day in August of 1972, when Reverend Jesse Jackson opened one the greatest events in history with these words: “...And this is why we’ve gathered today, to celebrate our homecoming and our own sense of somebodyness...”[1].
This event, otherwise known as Wattstax, was a benefit concert organized by Memphis based record company Stax Records to remember the riots that occured in the African American community of Watts, Los Angeles in 1965, seven years earlier. With 112,000 plus people in attendance, Wattstax became “an intellectual, social and emotional rebellion” for African Americans which “manifested itself in the music” in the midst of the Black Power Era, as Stax Records CEO Al Bell states [2].
Jackson set the tone of the event with his speech, ‘I Am Somebody’. Citing how Wattstax was “a day of black awareness” and noting themes of unity, power, and solidarity, Jackson led the crowd in a series of calls and responses that celebrated the beauty and pride of being black. The stadium rang with resounding voices, resplendently echoing back the vivid words of “I am Somebody!” and “Nation Time!”, a perfect lead in for the first song of the night [3]. As these last vestiges of this chant to solidarity slowly faded into the night, the first strands of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing’, or as Jackson called it, the “Black National Anthem”, began to play.
For those who are not familiar with the song, the origins of this hymn come from a piece written by a young poet and school principal named James Weldon Johnson in 1899. Johnson, having been asked to speak to a crowd in Jacksonville, Florida on the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, decided to commemorate “the struggle and resilience of his ancestors”, as he later recounted [4]. After handing the lyrics to his brother, John Rosamond Johnson, a classically trained musician, the poem transformed from a mere three stanzas written on a piece of paper to a hymn that continues to be sung all around the world today. In setting this piece to music, the Johnson brothers “intended to not only uplift black communities” but to “illuminate the suffering African Americans had endured for generations” [5]. With this, the song took off, not only as a resistance song for African American communities in the South during the Reconstruction period and long after, but as the official song for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the early 20th century. As time passed and its popularity grew, this anthem solidified its place in history by being utilized as a call to action for many during the civil rights movement of the period between the 1960s and 1970s.
Thus, when soul singer Kim Weston began to crone the first few words of this symbol of resilience, the crowd expressed more than just mild enthusiasm. As seen in the documentaryWattstax (1973), the imagery of a full stadium such as the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum standing together in unison and raising their right fists in the air to sing this song of black resilience expresses more than any words can encapture [6].
Weston’s searing rendition of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” or the “Black National Anthem” perfectly captured what the Los Angeles Times writes as the “resilience that the concert aimed to celebrate” [7]. Such strong themes of courage, pride, strength and adaptability which definedWattstax and its contemporary movements could not be expressed nor represented better than a song such as “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” and for that, it is arguably the best song that could have initiated the beginning of such a day of unity. See for yourself:
Endnotes:
1. Leprincecash. "Wattstax 1973 Documentary." YouTube. May 25, 2013. Accessed June 03, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xJw7g1wvRw.
2. Maycock, James. "Loud and Proud." The Guardian. July 20, 2002. Accessed June 2, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2002/jul/20/artsfeatures.features1.
3. Leprincecash. "Wattstax 1973 Documentary." YouTube. May 25, 2013. Accessed June 03, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xJw7g1wvRw.
4. Schmidt, Samantha. "'Lift Every Voice and Sing': The Story behind the 'black National Anthem' That Beyoncé Sang." The Washington Post. April 16, 2018. Accessed June 2, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/04/16/lift-every-voice-and-sing-the-story-be hind-the-black-national-anthem-that-beyonce-sang/?utm_term=.9e26f6badf65.
5. chmidt, Samantha. "'Lift Every Voice and Sing': The Story behind the 'black National Anthem' That Beyoncé Sang." The Washington Post. April 16, 2018. Accessed June 2, 2019.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/04/16/lift-every-voice-and-sing-the-story-be hind-the-black-national-anthem-that-beyonce-sang/?utm_term=.9e26f6badf65.
6. Leprincecash. "Wattstax 1973 Documentary." YouTube. May 25, 2013. Accessed June 03, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xJw7g1wvRw.
7. Kennedy, Gerrick D. "Remembering the 1972 Wattstax Concert Brings Us to Crucial Voices of Kendrick Lamar, Prince." Los Angeles Times. August 18, 2015. Accessed June 03, 2019. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-black-music-wattstax-20150819-story.html.📷
Photo of Wattstax audience at the top of this page source:
Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing
Lyrics by James Weldon Johnson and Music by J. Rosamond Johnson
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.
Bibliography:
Kennedy, Gerrick D. "Remembering the 1972 Wattstax Concert Brings Us to Crucial Voices of Kendrick Lamar, Prince." Los Angeles Times. August 18, 2015. Accessed June 03, 2019. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-black-music-wattstax-20150819-story.html.
Leprincecash. "Wattstax 1973 Documentary." YouTube. May 25, 2013. Accessed June 03, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xJw7g1wvRw.Maycock, James. "Loud and Proud." The Guardian. July 20, 2002. Accessed June 2, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2002/jul/20/artsfeatures.features1.Schmidt, Samantha. "'Lift Every Voice and Sing': The Story behind the 'black National Anthem' That Beyoncé Sang." The Washington Post. April 16, 2018. Accessed June 2, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/04/16/lift-every-voice-and- sing-the-story-behind-the-black-national-anthem-that-beyonce-sang/?utm_term=.9e26f6ba df65.
Wilson, Tony. "Jesse Jackson: 'I Am Somebody', Wattstax Music Festival - 1972." Speakola. October 14, 2015. Accessed June 03, 2019. https://speakola.com/ideas/jesse-jackson-i-am-somebody-1972.
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