In 1939 Augusta Savage, an African American woman, was commissioned to do a sculpture for the New York World's Fair. Inspired by James Weldon Johnson's poem Lift Every Voice and Sing, she created this 16-foot sculpture, "The Harp". This best known work of hers, reinterprets the musical instrument with a row of twelve singing African American youth in graduated heights, who form the strings. The arm and the hand of God form the harp's sounding board. A kneeling man holding a sheet of music forms the harp's pedal.
The poem, Lift Every Voice and Sing, was written by NAACP leader, James Weldon Johnson in 1900 and set to music by his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, for a celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday. In 1919, the NAACP dubbed the hymn, the Black National Anthem, for its power in voicing the cry for liberation. It deserves to be sung or read with intentionality and attentiveness to the words which explores themes of the horrors of suffering, struggle for racial justice, hope and liberation. Though it was written years ago, singing it today causes deep discomfort that the struggle for racial justice and equity continues on today.
Be attentive to your feelings as you look at the image above, read and listen to the words of Lift Every Voice and Sing. As you meditate on the image of "The Harp" inspired by this song, what touches your soul? What feelings arise in you? What phrases or words are most significant to you in the hymn? What does the hymn call forth in you?
Lift every voice and sing, Till 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 till 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,
Till 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.
Listen to the song: Lift Every Voice by students at Oxford University
Prayer:
Gracious and merciful God, may we lift our voices and sing of the faith that the dark past has taught us. May we sing full of hope that the present has brought us. Help us to commit ourselves to keep forever on the path, marching for racial justice and equity until victory is won.
Resources:
“Augusta Savage.” Biography, 26 Feb. 2016.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (June 23, 2019) Augusta Savage: A Woman of Her Word
Jonathan, F. (July 9, 2020) Augusta Savage. Shades of Noir
Tisby, J. (June 19, 2021) Why Black and White People should Commemorate Juneteenth Differently. The Witness.
#4" Reflection Essay: Life Every Voice and Sing - James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson
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