VocalEssence Chorus, VocalEssence Ensemble Singers, VocalEssence Singers of This Age, VocalEssence Vintage Voices, orchestra

LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING
J. Rosamond Johnson, arr. Roland Carter

Please stand and sing when directed.
Lift every voice and sing, 'til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of liberty,
Let our rejoicing rise, high as the list’ning 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, 'til victory is won.

Stony the road we trod, bitter the chast’ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn has died.
Yet with a steady beat have not our weary feet,
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed.

We have come, Oh we have come
Over a way that with tears has been water’d.
O, we have come, treading our path thro’ the blood of the slaughter’d.
Out of the gloomy past, 'til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

Please be seated.
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way.
Thou who hast 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
Shadow’d beneath Thy hand, May we forever stand
True to our God, true to our native land. Amen.
—Words by James Weldon Johnson