By Wayne Stapleton and Sharon Richards
Our North American Baptist Conference of churches was established in light of a cultural need. German immigrants to North America arrived and planted churches, worshiped, and preached the Word of God, in German, to German immigrants and their descendants, sensitive to the German cultural context. NAB church communities historically have been a haven for German culture, connection, and belonging. Even today, those in the NAB of German descent rightly look back favorably and with pride on their heritage and history in our churches.
German followers of Jesus who established NAB churches were a specific group of people with unique cultural experiences in North America.
Since its establishment, the NAB has welcomed a wide array of cultures into its churches, including the first Kurdish church in North America and churches that serve various cultures, including Christians of Chinese descent, Hispanic descent, and many other ethnicities, as well as multiethnic churches in which people of diverse cultures gather together in the name of Jesus Christ. Recognizing culture and its impact in the church has always been a part of who we are as the NAB.
The cultural experiences of Black people of African descent are celebrated in the US and Canada during the month of February, specifically to address the victories and celebrations of their unique cultural heritage. The song “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” speaks to these unique experiences and recognizes the role God has played in their lives. This song has been called the Black National Anthem, not to suggest Black Americans are their own nation but highlighting the unique hardships and hopes people of African descent have experienced in America. The song represents one group’s culture and connection and is a rallying point for belonging.
“Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” was written in 1900 by James Weldon Johnson as a poem, later put to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson. It is said that a choir of 500 schoolchildren at the Stanton School, a segregated school in Jacksonville, Florida, where James Weldon Johnson was principal, first performed the song in public to celebrate the birthday of President Abraham Lincoln. The song was written in a particular cultural moment in the United States. It was thirty-five years after the Civil War and twenty-two years after the period of Reconstruction in which Presidents Johnson, Grant, and Hayes sought to reunite the Confederate states back into the Union; the country was still attempting to heal. By this time, Reconstruction had been met in the South with hindrances like the Black Codes and Jim Crow regulations – laws determining where Black Americans could live and work – and the formation of the Ku Klux Klan. In the Plessy v Ferguson ruling in 1896, the US Supreme Court upheld the doctrine of “separate but equal,” which legally enforced racial segregation in the United States. This ruling stayed in place until 1954, when it was overturned by Brown v Board of Education of Topeka.
In light of the tensions Black Americans were facing in 1900, James Weldon Johnson wrote this poem that is filled with looking at the real challenges of his community, but also with hope for a future that is bright. Today, this hymn, a mainstay in many Black churches to this day, is an inspiring reminder of resilience in difficult times and faith in God, as well as a rally cry for unity. It is a song of rejoicing, of celebration, and of hope in God. It is astounding to read the hope in this poem, even amidst references to past trials, considering the state of America for Blacks in 1900.
Lift ev’ry voice and sing,
till 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 till victory is won.Stony the road we trod,
bitter the chast’ning rod,
felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
yet with a steady beat,
have not our weary feet
come to the place for which our people sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered.
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
out from the gloomy past,
till now we stand at last
where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
thou who has brought us thus far on the way,
Thou who has 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;
shadowed beneath thy hand,
may we forever stand,
true to our God, true to our native land.
No matter who we are or where we come from, each of us can look back at our own weary years and silent tears and see the hand of God bringing us on our way. May we be thankful for what God has done in and through our lives. Let us also join with our brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter their background and history, to praise God through our encouragement, love, and support. To God be the glory!