“Lift Every Voice and Sing” was composed by James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson. The brothers were natives of Jacksonville, Florida, and both worked at their alma mater, the Edwin M. Stanton School, Duval County’s segregated black high school. James composed the poem in 1899. His younger brother Rosamond (as he was known) set it to music for a performance by the school's students at the Stanton School’s assembly on February 12, 1900 commemorating the birth of President Abraham Lincoln and at which Booker T. Washington spoke.

I wanted to do a choral arrangement of this hymn, but felt the need to start with notating the original version first, which I have done below. The music source I worked from is in the key of A flat, and shows a copyright date of MCM [1900] by Joseph W. Stern & Company, New York, which later became the Edward B. Marks Music Company after Stern retired in 1920. Lift Every Voice and Sing – J. Rosamond Johnson notated by Jason Hunsaker