Lift Every Voice and Sing

“The Star-Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott Key (1814)

Like “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” “The Star-Spangled Banner” is a poem that became an anthem in the 20th century. The poem, which Key wrote to commemorate the Battle of Baltimore during the American Revolution, relies on dark and light imagery and a call to the audience to see the past as inspiration for the present. Key refers to Black, self-emancipated people who fought for British forces as the “slave” (Line 21). Where James Weldon Johnson advances the idea that there is a long history of Black struggle for liberty, Key uses the presence of Black fighters on the British side as proof that the British lack honor.

“I, Too” by Langston Hughes (1926)

Written during the Harlem Renaissance (the flowering of Black poetry and art during the early 20th century), “I, Too” is another poem that identifies Black Americans’ love of freedom as something they have in common with other US citizens. The speaker relies on resilience and optimism about the future to deal with racism.

“A Change Is Gonna Come” Sam Cooke (1964)

Cooke’s 1964 song is an anthem of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Cooke relies on Biblical imagery to represent the struggle for civil rights. Like in “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the speaker in the poem/lyrics is buoyed by their faith that the future will be better than the present.

“little prayer” by Danez Smith (2017)

Smith published “little prayer” in Don't Call Us Dead: Poems, a collection that imagines a reality in which Black life rather than Black death is central to the culture of the United States. “little prayer” is also a poem that relies on Biblical imagery to represent the hope that sustains the Black Lives Matter.