WASHINGTON (BP) – James Weldon Johnson’s poem “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” set to music by his brother John Rosamond, was first presented as a hymn, then adopted as a song and soon cherished as an anthem.
In its 125th anniversary year, the work published in numerous hymnals including Lifeway Christian Resources’ 2008 Baptist Hymnal, is transparently seen as a healing balm with timely biblical and theological elements for a deeply divided United States.
“I think the message is that hope born is for our humanity flourishing,” Stephen Newby, a Baylor University professor of music who holds an endowed chair in the study of Black worship, told Baptist Press.
“Hope born is for our humanity flourishing. That’s what it says. That word says that for all society, for all cultures. It has a Christian, a very clear Christian theological trope that says that, speaks to and lifts up the Kingdom of God.”…