Lift Every Voice and Sing

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” was publicly performed first as a poem as part of a celebration of Lincoln’s Birthday on February 12, 1900, by 500 school children at the segregated Stanton School. Its principal, James Weldon Johnson, wrote the words to introduce its honored guest Booker T. Washington. The poem was set to music soon after by Johnson’s brother John in 1900.

This work is particularly appropriate for performance on Martin Luther King Jr. Day which falls in late January each year.

Trumpet parts in Bb and C are provided.