Exploring the Text

1. Without referencing actual events, the poem alludes to the history of African Americans. What particulars of that historical experience might be linked to specific lines in the poem?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - Without referencing actual events, the poem alludes to the history of African Americans. What particulars of that historical experience might be linked to specific lines in the poem?
2. The poem is filled with tensions and dualities. Cite at least two and explain how they are developed. Do they resolve themselves into a balance, or does one triumph?

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   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - The poem is filled with tensions and dualities. Cite at least two and explain how they are developed. Do they resolve themselves into a balance, or does one triumph?
3. How would you describe the tone of the poem? Consider the final three lines in your explanation.

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   Exploring the Text: - How would you describe the tone of the poem? Consider the final three lines in your explanation.
4. Listen to a recording or performance of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing.” How does the music match your understanding of the poem, or does it change it? Explain with reference to specific lines or passages.

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - Listen to a recording or performance of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing.” How does the music match your understanding of the poem, or does it change it? Explain with reference to specific lines or passages.
5. In Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing: A Celebration of the Negro National Anthem (2000), editors Julian Bond and Sondra Kathryn Wilson distinguish between an anthem and a “hymn”:

   As a college student, Johnson had realized the glaring contradictions between white America’s actions and the true aims of the United States Constitution. He believed that the Constitution meant exactly what it said, and it was his inexorable faith in the founding principles of America that inspired him to write “Lift Every Voice and Sing” not as an anthem but as a hymn. He did not conceive the song as an anthem, and at no time did he refer to it in that manner. By the 1920s the song was being pasted inside the back covers of hymnal books across the South and in many parts of the North. It is likely that around this time the “anthem” label evolved through folklore, thus sealing the song’s permanent status among African Americans as their “Negro National Anthem.”

   James Weldon Johnson was the chief executive officer of the NAACP during the 1920s, when the organization made “Lift Every Voice and Sing” its “official song.” Because of his strong belief that “a nation can have but one anthem” and the NAACP’s fundamental ideology of integration, labeling the song an “anthem” would have been antithetical to the organization’s central objective. Johnson’s main task as NAACP leader was to legally abolish the fiendish acts of lynchings that were increasingly occurring; he called for the saving of black America’s bodies and white America’s souls. He certainly understood that when the wide-ranging forces of racism struck, his people needed something to fall back on. And it was clear to him that African Americans made the song what they needed it to be—their anthem of hope and prayer.

   After looking up the definition of the terms, explain Bond and Wilson’s reasoning and why you believe that “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” is best characterized as an anthem or as a hymn.

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - In Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing: A Celebration of the Negro National Anthem (2000), editors Julian Bond and Sondra Kathryn Wilson distinguish between an anthem and a “hymn”:As a college student, Johnson had realized the glaring contradictions between white America’s actions and the true aims of the United States Constitution. He believed that the Constitution meant exactly what it said, and it was his inexorable faith in the founding principles of America that inspired him to write “Lift Every Voice and Sing” not as an anthem but as a hymn. He did not conceive the song as an anthem, and at no time did he refer to it in that manner. By the 1920s the song was being pasted inside the back covers of hymnal books across the South and in many parts of the North. It is likely that around this time the “anthem” label evolved through folklore, thus sealing the song’s permanent status among African Americans as their “Negro National Anthem.”James Weldon Johnson was the chief executive officer of the NAACP during the 1920s, when the organization made “Lift Every Voice and Sing” its “official song.” Because of his strong belief that “a nation can have but one anthem” and the NAACP’s fundamental ideology of integration, labeling the song an “anthem” would have been antithetical to the organization’s central objective. Johnson’s main task as NAACP leader was to legally abolish the fiendish acts of lynchings that were increasingly occurring; he called for the saving of black America’s bodies and white America’s souls. He certainly understood that when the wide-ranging forces of racism struck, his people needed something to fall back on. And it was clear to him that African Americans made the song what they needed it to be—their anthem of hope and prayer.After looking up the definition of the terms, explain Bond and Wilson’s reasoning and why you believe that “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” is best characterized as an anthem or as a hymn.
6. In 2008, jazz singer Rene Martin was invited to perform the national anthem at a city event in Denver, Colorado. She sang the lyrics to “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” to the music of “The Star Spangled Banner.” As a member of the listening audience, how would you have responded?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - In 2008, jazz singer Rene Martin was invited to perform the national anthem at a city event in Denver, Colorado. She sang the lyrics to “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” to the music of “The Star Spangled Banner.” As a member of the listening audience, how would you have responded?