New Arrangement of Black National Anthem Raises Funds for Portland Social Justice Organization

In June of 2020, the Portland Symphonic Choir commissioned local vocalist and arranger Dorcas Brown Smith to write a new arrangement of James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson's 'Lift Every Voice and Sing'. The song, often referred to as the Black national anthem, was written and composed by the brothers in 1900 and 1905. Each year at The Skanner Foundation's Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast local leaders and the community join in voice with this song to begin their "day of service".

During the months of June and July, the Portland Symphonic Choir choir met to learn and rehearse the new arrangement, led by Dorcas. Each member recorded their vocal part individually to present the choir's second Virtual Choir Project, which was released on August 28, in tandem with Washington D.C.'s March on Washington.

Net proceeds from donations received for this project benefit local social justice organization Don't Shoot Portland.

"Our project has received thousands of views on both Facebook and YouTube, and we have been humbled to receive many generous donations to Don't Shoot Portland," Jayde Weide, Portland Symphonic Choir Operations Manager said in an email.

Lyrics:

Lift Every Voice and Sing

James Weldon Johnson (lyrics 1900), J. Rosamond Johnson (music 1905)

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 wonStony 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 white gleam of our bright star is castGod of our weary years
God of our silent tearsThou 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