Does the Black National Anthem Promote Separatism

Lift every voice and sing til’ earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmonies of liberty…

Right about now in the song, especially blacks 40 and under start humming the words hoping no one around them is realizing there is no way you are going to even try the words to verses two and three. You might be saying, I didn’t even know there were more verses.

James Weldon Johnson wrote the poem in 1900. Soon after Johnson’s brother transformed it into a song. It has been in heavy rotation at every Martin Luther King, Jr. tribute and ceremony, NAACP Convention and any other gathering when more than a hundred blacks assemble for something positive. The only reason the Electric Slide gets more play is because it is now played at gatherings where the attendees are not just black. We won’t even mention DJ Casper’s Cha Cha Cha song right now.

Professor Timothy Askew at Clark Atlanta University, has an interesting perspective on the ideal that the song is actually separatist. Professor Askew has spent a lot more time than most researching James Weldon Johnson while at Yale University. This is a bold position from a professor at a HBCU.You know he has been called Tommy (short for Tom) Askew a couple of times for his position.

It is intriguing how many debates are rampant about the attempt and need to assimilate in a rather all-in nature since the occupants of the White House have been a little different from the past. According to history, Lift Every Voice an Sing was never the official “Black National Anthem”. Arguably, the song never makes reference to any racial group at all.

In Askew’s new book, Cultural Hegemony and African American Patriotism: An Analysis of the Song, ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing‘, he explores the ideals and traditions surrounding the song. According to Askew, by singing the Black National Anthem, blacks are sending the message that they prefer to be separate, and have their own nation. Hmmm.

While I respect the professor’s point of view and appreciate the intellectual analysis, I have to say, brother please. First, I honestly don’t believe enough black people even know the words to the song past the first verse. Second, just because you hold onto something near and dear and treat as tradition does not make you a separatist ready to start a revolution or revive the Marcus Garvey Movement. Lastly, at the root of many of the problems faced by blacks today is a lack of knowledge and understanding of self and that deep seated, often unspoken desire for assimilation and acceptance from the dwindling majority. The revolution will not be televised.

Sing a song full of the full of the faith that the dark past has taught us…