RELATED: Hymn endures as unofficial black national ... according to a 2000 book, “Lift Every Voice and Sing: A Celebration of the Negro National Anthem.” James Weldon Johnson penned the ...

It was written by James Weldon Johnson, who considered the piece a hymn. James Weldon Johnson's "Lift Every Voice and Sing," colloquially known as the Black national anthem, was originally written ...

"To make ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ a national hymn, would be an act of bringing the country together," he wrote. "The gesture itself would be an act of healing. Everybody can identify with ...