By Richard Prince (TriceEdneyWire.com)
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the highest- ranking Black member of Congress, told journalists Sunday that he plans to introduce legislation to make “Lift Every Voice and Sing” the “National Hymn.”
“I’ve been toying around with an idea now for two or three decades, ever since I’ve been in the Congress,” Clyburn said during Richard Prince’s Journal-isms Roundtable Jan. 3. “I’ve been trying to build up enough nerve to introduce a national hymn.
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“I instructed my staff two weeks ago to prepare legislation for me to apply this week to make ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ our National Hymn. We have a National Anthem; we don’t have a national hymn. I would love to see that become our national hymn, and being sung at events, not as the Negro National Anthem, but as the United States of America’s National Hymn.
“We are putting that legislation in this week. I hope I can survive and see [that] it passes.”
The idea may already be taking shape. After a year of a national racial reckoning following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, the NFL decided that during its opening week, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” would be performed before each game, ahead of “The Star Spangled Banner,” as Andrew R. Chow reported in July for Time magazine.
Lift Every Voice and Sing, a soaring hymn that is sung while standing with respect during many Black events, was written by James Weldon Johnson and put to music by his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, in 1900. The heart rendering words of the song describe the struggle of Black people in America from slavery to freedom.
