An entirely appropriate anthem

When the Rev. Joseph Lowery rose to offer the closing prayer at President Obama's swearing-in ceremony, he knew which hymn he would borrow to start his prayer."God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou who has brought us thus far along the way," he prayed, invoking the third verse from "Lift Every Voice and Sing," the hymn that's long been considered the unofficial Black national anthem.

"Thou who has by thy might, led us into the light, keep us forever in the path, we pray."

The words rang out across the National Mall that day, and again the next at the Washington National Cathedral in the sermon preached to the new president. For more than a century, they have been used to mark special occasions, including the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and have become a staple for Black History Month each February.

Lowery, a retired United Methodist minister who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with King, said he thought the song was entirely appropriate for the inaugural of the nation's first African-American president.

"It had historicity; it had the religious context," said Lowery, who used the third stanza as a regular hymn of praise in his worship services for 25 years. "The Black experience is sort of wrapped up in that hymn."

Though Lowery has always called it a "national hymn" because he didn't think the nation should have two separate anthems, many African Americans give it the same honor as the traditional national anthem: They stand when it is sung.

"It is our `Star-Spangled Banner,'" said Jackie Dupont-Walker, social action chair of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which is why many African Americans respectfully stand when the hymn is played.

The song traces its roots to a 1900 celebration of Lincoln's birthday in Jacksonville, Fla., according to a 2000 book, "Lift Every Voice and Sing: A Celebration of the Negro National Anthem." James Weldon Johnson penned the words for the occasion; his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, set them to music.

The song that would catch on across the country initially "passed out of our minds," Johnson wrote. But children kept singing it, he said, passing it on to other children. Soon the song was pasted into the back of hymnals, Bibles and schoolbooks.

Now that a Black man presides at the White House, some have wondered if the country still needs Black History Month, much less a Black national anthem. The Rev. Vinton Anderson, a retired bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, sees a future for the hymn.

"I think we should continue the tradition of singing it," said Anderson, who helped place the song in the AME Church's bicentennial hymnal in 1984. "It reminds us of where we are, where we've come from and where we hope to go."

Lyrics to "Lift Every Voice and Sing"
by James Weldon 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 bright gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who hast 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.