School Bell Song

This chapter provides a detailed discussion of the curriculum, ritual, teachers organizations and culture of African American schools in the segregated South with a particular focus on how the song Lift Every Voice and Sing was integrated into daily practices in the lives of children.

A Piece of the Rock

This chapter describes the rise of Black political power and modest desegregation gains of the 1970s and 80s. In the midst of the expansion of Black presence in the public eye, and the waning of Black institutional life, the anthem contracts and its ritual singing ebbs.

The Bell Tolls for Thee

This chapter provides an analysis of the shifting political landscape of Black Americans in the context of World War II through the lens of Black media and other popular cultural forms. The socio political meaning of the anthem in this context diverges, and for the first time it is significantly engaged by the mainstream of American politics and media as well.

The Sound and Fury of a Renaissance

This chapter describes the New Negro Movement that flourished following World War I. In the context of the rise of political organizations like the NAACP, Garveyism, in addition to vibrant arts and cultural communities, and print culture, Lift Every Voice and Sing became both an inspiration and a touchpoint for the expression and expansion of African American identity.

Shall We Overcome?

This chapter traces the development of the modern civil rights movement and the eventual displacement of Lift Every Voice and Sing by “freedom songs.” Nevertheless, the anthem continued to resonate, specifically in the most challenging movements in the movement.

I’ll Make Me a World

This chapter describes the personal history of the author and composer of Lift Every Voice and Sing: James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson. It situates the composition of the song in the context of the social and political movements of African Americans in the midst of the development of Jim Crow in the post-Reconstruction South, with a particular focus on Associational Life and the development of formal rituals. It traces how Lift Every Voice and Sing became known as the Negro National Anthem.

Afterword

The end is bitter with only the slightest sweetness. After eight increasingly frustrating years of the second Bush presidency, marked by September 11 and the continuing toll of two long wars, candidate Barack Obama stood as a beacon of hope: hope for new beginnings, for the possibility of a changed course in our national political vision, and for a refuge from the painful politics of race. That hope was unrealistic, premature, and sophomoric at best....

All Power, All Poetry, to the People

This chapter covers the revival of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” within the context of the rise of the Black Power movement and the attendant institutional life. It reads Black Power in terms of both the failed promises of civil rights, and the idea of return and recovery of Black traditions.