Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing

Nearly everyone has heard the song "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," and most have been inspired by it. However, the product of Harlem Renaissance sculptor Augusta Fells Savage's inspiration is considerably more beautiful than most. Her piece, "The Harp," created in 1939 for the New York World's Fair, does with sculpture what the song does with language. Combined with the fact that it was created the same year that Marian Anderson sang before thousands at the Lincoln Memorial, it gives new meaning to the vision of "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing."

The lyrics, by James Weldon Johnson, in 1900 and performed by his brother for an elementary school celebration of Lincoln's birthday -

Lift every voice and sing,
'Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening 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 chast'ning 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 white gleam of our bright star is cast.

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

Image of "The Harp" taken from http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai3/community/text4/savagetheharp.pdf