At age 5, Aquil Sudah first heard the “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” or as he prefers to call it, the Black National Anthem.
The hymn, written by James Weldon Johnson and composed by J. Rosamond Johnson in 1900, was celebrated during a Museum of the Bible symposium on June 12, 2025, in Washington D.C.
After starting every morning reciting the lyrics – his version of the pledge of allegiance – at Roots Public Charter School in Northwest D.C., Sudah channeled that connection again at 16, when he sang the song that gained him acceptance into Duke Ellington School of the Arts (DESA).
Suda watched the wind ensemble of his alma mater perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” during the symposium.
“It feels special, nostalgic, privileged to have known or had that song embedded at 5 years old,” said Sudah, who works as an audio engineer at the museum.
“The concrete [of the song] is something else, the establishment is something else. It’s the movement of the people.”
Featuring musical performances and analysis, the symposium gave a nod to the hymn’s cultural and spiritual roots, while highlighting its presence in modern American history, reminding attendees of all backgrounds that sometimes the bridge to faith is found in the verse of a song.
“That phrase of [‘Ring with the harmonies of Liberty,’] is just so powerful…you have all of these threads throughout society where we’re all moving toward that day when all people have that sense of justice and that sense of arrival,” said Bobby Duke, chief curatorial officer and director of the Scholars Initiative at the Museum of the Bible. “It really is a message of hope, a message of what’s the world that we can live in.”
James Weldon Johnson first penned the poem in Jacksonville, Florida to commemorate President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. He later enlisted the help of his brother, who was two years younger, to assemble the melody accompanying the poem-turned anthem.
After helping to curate the seminar of two years in the making, Dr. Stephen Michael Newby, professor of music and Lev H. Prichard III endowed chair in the study of Black Worship at Baylor University, beamed as he reflected on the hymn’s significance at the Museum of the Bible, coupled with the backdrop of a singing Florida Memorial University Chorale.
“These Johnson brothers, they were transformative,” Newby said.
“Every line [of the hymn] has its own beauty, has its own possibilities for new songs, for new ideas, for multiplicity of new genres. We’re just waiting for the generations to take their role, get in line and put that creative brick in the wall to build [it].”
The “Lifting Our Voices” student art installation – highlighted a multitude of lyric interpretations from DESA visual artists – demonstrated the intergenerational impact of the arts. The exhibit was coupled with performances by the Howard University Gospel Choir, Washington Performing Arts choirs, and Florida Memorial University Chorale, the very institution where J. Rosamond Johnson composed the song 125 years ago.
“To see the history and be able to be a part of the history is something that’s surreal to me,” said 22-year-old Rashaud Marcelin, who performed with the Florida chorus on June 12. “‘Lift Every Voice and Sing,’ that’s our anthem. You can see a lot of people have a lot of pride behind that…behind the legacy.”
Chicagoan Denise Young told The Informer she thinks the Johnson brothers would be surprised to see the continued celebration of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” assuming the “need” that birthed the hymn would have been resolved more than a century later.
“The wisdom and the intuitiveness and the creative genius behind [James Weldon] Johnson being able to capture our struggle, our suffering, and at the same time our hope; everyone can’t do that. Everyone doesn’t understand that they go together,” she said.
Beyond the timelessness of the tune, Duke hopes the symposium exposes a deep understanding that “the Bible is everywhere,” while opening doors for people to connect with the song “in new ways, for a new generation.”
“This is a song that’s standing between two worlds–the world of the past and the world of the future,” Duke said.
“You realize this concept is not about me, it’s about ‘we.’ It’s one that is part of this community, and I’m just thrilled [that] here at Museum of the Bible, we get to welcome even a broader community…to get connected to this song.”