Support grows for bill to make ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ the U.S. national hymn

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Leaders across state lines are working on something they believe will help bring the country back together.

This Friday, Feb. 4, a proposal to make “Lift Every Voice and Sing” the United States national hymn will be heard by members of Congress.

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You may recognize this song as the Black national anthem, but there are some serious efforts to make it the United States national hymn.

“It talks about hope, talks about the future and it talks about overcoming obstacles,” said Tony Hill, a former Florida senator and a supporter of the proposal.

Hill believes it continues to resonate with so many people, 122 years after it was written by James Weldon Johnson.

“It was a poem initially, and then it became a song,” Hill explained.

It was a song performed for the first time in public in Jacksonville, Florida, at Stanton School — now known as Stanton College Prep — where Johnson was a principal.

“It is not only sung in the United States. When I was in Bermuda, they were singing it. When we were in South Africa they sang the song, because again, it is universal,” Hill told Action News Jax’s Courtney Cole.

Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina filed a bill on Jan. 13, 2020, as a first step toward honoring the song as the national hymn for the United States.

In a tweet from Clyburn, he said he believes this would help bring the country together.

It has since gained support near and far. Twelve letters have been written in favor of the proposal, which include letters from The Jacksonville Historical Society; the Duval County Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Diana Greene; and Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry.

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“It is a song that is sung more than any other song in the world, in terms of the heritage of it in the 1900s,” said Hill.

The next step happens on Friday, Feb. 4.

That’s when a Congressional committee hearing will be held, for the first time since this idea was proposed in 2020.

Another supporter, Lloyd Washington with the Durkeeville Historical Society, will make a presentation supporting this effort.

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