Lift Every Voice and Sing - wikipedia Lift Every Voice and Sing `` Lift Every Voice and Sing '' -- often referred to as the `` Black American National Anthem '' -- is a song written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson ( 1871 -- 1938 ) in 1899 and set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson ( 1873 -- 1954 ) in 1905. History `` Lift Every Voice and Sing '' was publicly performed first as a poem as part of a celebration of Abraham Lincoln 's birthday on February 12, 1900, by 500 school children at the segregated Stanton School in Jacksonville, Florida. Its principal, James Weldon Johnson, wrote the words to introduce its honored guest Booker T. Washington. The poem was set to music in 1905 by Johnson 's brother John. In 1919, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) dubbed it `` The Negro National Anthem '' for its power in voicing the cry for liberation and affirmation for African - American people. In 1939, Augusta Savage received a commission from the New York World 's Fair and created a 16 - foot ( 5 m ) plaster sculpture called Lift Every Voice and Sing which was destroyed by bulldozers at the close of the fair. In Maya Angelou 's 1969 autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the song is sung by the audience and students at Maya 's eighth grade graduation, after a white school official dashes the educational aspirations of her class. In 1990, singer Melba Moore released a modern rendition of the song, which she recorded along with others including R&B artists Stephanie Mills, Freddie Jackson, Anita Baker, Dionne Warwick, Bobby Brown, Stevie Wonder, Jeffrey Osborne, and Howard Hewett ; and gospel artists BeBe & CeCe Winans, Take 6, and The Clark Sisters, after which, `` Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing '' was entered into the Congressional Record by Del. Walter Fauntroy ( D - DC ). In 2008, jazz singer Rene Marie was asked to perform the national anthem at a civic event in Denver, Colorado, where she caused a controversy by substituting the words of `` Lift Every Voice and Sing '' into the song. This arrangement of the words of `` Lift Every Voice and Sing '' with the melody of `` The Star Spangled Banner '' became part of the titular suite on her 2011 CD release, `` The Voice of My Beautiful Country ''. On January 20, 2009, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, who was formerly president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, used a near - verbatim recitation of the song 's third stanza to begin his benediction at the inauguration ceremony for President Barack Obama. On September 24, 2016, this song was sung by mezzo - soprano Denyce Graves and chorus at the conclusion of the opening ceremonies of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, at which Obama delivered the keynote address. References Jump up ^ Touré ( November 17, 2011 ). `` Society It 's Time for a New Black National Anthem ''. Time Magazine. Retrieved February 16, 2015. Jump up ^ James, Timothy ( Winter 2013 ). `` THE STORY OF THE BLACK NATIONAL ANTHEM, `` LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING '' Written by James Weldon Johnson '' ( PDF ). Selah ( 1 ( 1 ) ). Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 16 February 2015. Retrieved 16 February 2015. Jump up ^ Bearden, Romare and Henderson, Harry. A History of African - American Artists ( From 1792 to the Present ), pp. 168 - 180, Pantheon Books ( Random House ), 1993, ISBN 0 - 394 - 57016 - 2 Jump up ^ Angelou, Maya ( 1969 ). I know why the caged bird sings. New York, New York : Random House. pp. 169 -- 184. ISBN 0 - 375 - 50789 - 2. Jump up ^ Anderson, Susan Heller. `` Chronicle '', New York Times, April 18, 1990. Retrieved January 20, 2009. Jump up ^ Pellegrinelli, Lara ( July 3, 2009 ). `` Poetic License Raises A Star - Spangled Debate ''. All Things Considered. NPR. Retrieved January 15, 2012. External links Free scores by J. Rosamond Johnson at the International Music Score Library Project ( IMSLP ) -- including `` Lift Every Voice and Sing '' Lift Every Voice and Sing : A Celebration of the Negro National Anthem at the Wayback Machine ( archived March 1, 2009 ), edited by Julian Bond and Sondra Kathryn Wilson NPR 's Performance Today page on Black History Month -- includes a link to a RealPlayer version of the song Chicago Sun - Times columnist Lynn Sweet, transcript of Rev. Lowery 's Inauguration Benediction Video of singing `` Lift Every Voice and Sing '' on YouTube led by Alice Walker and Dr. Rudolph Byrd at Emory University Grace and James Weldon Johnson Website Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lift_Every_Voice_and_Sing&oldid=804729855 '' Categories : North American anthems American patriotic songs African - American culture 1899 poems 1900 songs American poems Patriotic hymns Works by James Weldon Johnson African - American poetry American Christian hymns United States National Recording Registry recordings Hidden categories : All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from July 2017 Composers with IMSLP links Articles with International Music Score Library Project links Webarchive template wayback links Talk About Wikipedia Deutsch Edit links This page was last edited on 10 October 2017, at 19 : 57. 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Question: who wrote the song lift every voice and sing
Answer: James Weldon Johnson