Mass Choir performs Negro National Anthem at DSU

[@aar1843]

WE SANG IT AT SCHOOL ...THIS SOUNG HAS HISTORY & POWER .....😎🙏👏👍

[@Marz916]

I love this Anthem, I remember my music teacher at Junior-High teaching us this song. It's beautiful.

[@mamascorpio]

I remember singing this arrangement with the Chicago Public Schools All-City Youth Chorus at the Chicago Theater back in 1990 or 1991. Paul David Wilson brought the arrangement to us to conduct us for the performance. memories. good times.

[@patriecebarton7721]

Same Here!!! All City Alumni!

[@longhaulconvert]

Yes it's slow and for purists who want to remain faithful to the original late 1800's format you have a point. The National Anthem of the United States is one that people take some tempo liberties with also. Have you listened to the Negro (Black) National Anthem sung by Aretha Franklin? Wow! So powerful and in the spirit of the song but not the tempo. As a White woman of considerable age with black adult children and grandchildren, my memory of this song sung during the Civil Rights era is a Holy memory. It brings tears to my eyes...I've seen too much not to cry. If you are someone who does not understand what this is about, learn more. It's not up to me but up to you. At 14 in 1962 it occurred to me that my school didn't teach me anything about people who were not White. I began to educate myself at my local library and never stopped learning and interacting with other races and cultures. (I'm almost 68 so it's been a great journey!) Forgive me if I sound knowledgeable because I am only myself.

[@msbjpeart]

Thank YOU!!

[@bernicecaldwell8485]

Bonnie Johnstone g

[@rcwblessed]

Beautifully stated, Bonnie.

[@kenichol]

For all the many years our nation failed to give blacks the same rights & opportunities as whites, it would have been hard to sing of the liberty, justice & equality of The Star Spangled Banner when you couldn't be in the park, at the lunch counter, voting booth. This song is such a beautiful song, faithful to the best our country promised to be.

[@smoothpistol]

I enjoyed the Delaware State University choir performance of the entire song. We normally just sing or hear the first verse. The African American National Anthem is a beautiful song! It represents a nation within a nation! Lift Every Voice And Sing!

[@Jenvonmike]

The conductor is Dr. Roland Carter, who is THE the arranger of this version, so perhaps tempo was his interpretation for this performance.

[@Jake-nk4wg]

The arranger is Dr. Roland Carter.

[@betterthanblessed05]

This is AMAZING!!! I have heard it as an anthem several times, however this mass choir is awesome!

[@gospmusluver]

It's very sad to see that people can't appreciate the talent here. People always try to compare something to something, instead of just accepting what it is and move on

[@jazz4life]

It's not cute.. this is a classic arrangement by Dr. Roland Carter. Widely recognized as one of the best choral music composers/arrangers of our time. And this arrangement is regarded as one of the best. Google him.. that's him conducting by the way and this is HIS interpretation of it. The song does have a powerful meaning and maybe we should focus on our kids learning it rather than tearing down this beautiful performance.

[@sillygal25]

Great rendition!!!!! I sung this version in college VA State Univ and I always loved this version!!! And those that have a problem with the title, do your research!

[@Backatwon]

Slowed down but still a beautiful song !!..I graduated from Lincoln University and proud !...respect choirs !!

[@ivorytunes]

@lusefer and @blizzleman, this is definitely the black national anthem. My grandma made me play the song for her on the piano, learn the words, and read up on the story of it. It's by James Weldon Johnson, and John Rosamond Johnson (brothers). It's usually sung at black formal functions, and pretty much every black Church service during black history month. #great song

[@adriennejustice8878]

Absolutely beautiful rendition

[@atownshawtypimp1]

I was born in 1987 and I know this song by hard, this was taught to me because i started in black schools.

[@islcastaway1986]

Yaaas

[@speechrighter]

Marvelous! A wonderfully performed full version of a long-treasured and time-honored anthem. Those who have complained about it don't seem to get that it was performed at a concert -- not a convention or a ballgame -- and the conductor's artistic interpretation of this classic is the whole point! He and the young people who performed it did a fabulous job. What is truly important is that all three verses were sung -- and the lyrics have never been more vital to the future of Black America.

[@Jake-nk4wg]

Roland Carter, the arranger, determined this to be the presented tempo. He also sped it up as this was.

[@danielletirpkoff4167]

A Powerful And Beautiful Song!!😉😋😁😘😗😃💖💖💖💖💙💙💙💙💚💚💚💚💜💜💜💜💛💛💛💛❤❤❤❤

[@lillianwilliams5510]

Magnificent!!!

[@jvjohnso]

JTFO at the "Awh Lord" -___- in the beginning lol - Nice work!

[@dmp97]

I like the traditional version of the Negro National Anthem; however, I support everyone's right to interpret/express it in any way they please. As a proud graduate of UMES/HBCU, I am happy with this rendition.

[@sharman1738]

Great version of this Hymn!

[@jacquelinechambers333]

Love this!!! Just beautiful

[@sharoncullars5486]

for those denying that this is the black national anthem, this is how we learned it as children (and i'm 50). written to uplift the black race during its struggles. that it's been adapted does not take away from its original history. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lift_Every_Voice_and_Sing

[@jonathandaniels7572]

Facts! I'm 53!

[@katferguson]

Beautiful & uplifting!!!

[@marvinkinsey3143]

This a great sonh for mankind to follow it dynamic words of wisdom

[@nnenna1974]

Lift Every Voice and Sing" - is a song written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) and set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954) in 1900. it was publicly performed first as a poem as part of a celebration of Lincoln's Birthday on February 12, 1900 by 500 school children at the segregated Stanton School. Its principal, James Weldon Johnson, wrote the words to introduce its honored guest Booker T. Washington...SOOO jbrown2396 it was here before you OR myself.

[@ivorytunes]

They sounds great, but I have yet to hear a choir sing this song better than my school: Oakwood Univeristy.

[@Jake-nk4wg]

You won't!!

[@TheMandatoryReporter]

The best version I've heard....chilling!

[@kmoore3892]

Made me cry

[@JoyceMeetsWorld]

This is beautiful!

[@gospmusluver]

ok, wondering how much faster should it go? The original is barely this fast

[@johnchristiansen3144]

Beau hymn. What is DSU?

[@emmanuelrichard7002]

great song

[@audreyanderson2809]

Wonderful!!

[@ernestinedingle7854]

Since we are the choir talking to the choir, I am curious, WEY the girls’ choir? My catholic friends may respond!

[@Montasia1112011]

UNITED WE RISE

[@tanyadixon7980]

Yes; they REPRESENT!!!

[@FreeMobileNetwork]

BRAVO!!!!! EXCELLENT CONDUCTING!!!

[@jenpollard3962]

Lola La Fey - this is the conductor’s arrangement (1972?)- Dr. Roland M. Carter

[@odumnobles]

BEAUTIFUL!!

[@rhmaukaable]

Excellent!

[@dvschilpp]

@nnenna1974 Maybe so, but 'DelawareStateU' was wrong when posting it as the 'Negro National Anthem." It should instead be posted as 'Lift Every Voice and Sing." I have no problem with the song, but I understand jbrown2369's frustration completely.

[@dvschilpp]

@Darrynn1 Well then I stand corrected. You learn something new everyday. It's a great song by the way.

[@999across]

Q: So is this what some W. Virginians getting upset over?

[@lontawilliam]

Hey I'm in this video lol go me

[@Hyphenated08]

LoL Go You

[@Jake-nk4wg]

I know you're proud and I'm happy for you!! :)

[@rrorr12]

@Kevin Canuck I thinks it by the NAACP and it's song about the rights for black people

[@winstonscott4195]

Ricky Orr it was written by James Weldon Johnson. The last. verse does not see black Americans as as ‘African-Americans’ but as Americans referring to the United States as their native land.

[@repchristopherbenjamin]

... and it was penned while JWJ was a professor at Florida Memorial University (then known as Florida Normal and Industrial College, and then Florida Memorial College). Florida Memorial was located in St. Augustine Florida and later moved to Miami, Florida thus making it the only Historically Black University in South Florida. Of which, I am a proud alumni! Lift Every Voice and Sing!

[@Jake-nk4wg]

@Ricky Orr Read the first line, "Life Every Voice and Sing". It didn't say this one's voice and not the other but "every". The most inclusive song I've ever heard and sung.

[@amapparatistkwabena]

Never heard it performed this slowly. Wake me up when they finish...zzz

[@ZechsMerquise73]

As Jeremy Clarkson said 'You need at least a 7 minute national anthem to really sink in the pride of victory [at the Olympics]'.

[@randyalexander]

great but ... could ur conducter speed it up just a tad

[@lrufusmusica]

Very nice performance! Beautiful voices! The tempo of the acapella portion “God of our weary years” was much too slow. The choir momentarily lost focus and drifted flat. Conductors of children choirs teach counting with the young singers in other to maintain a steady flow of rhythm. Adults can practice counting as well.

[@baltimoresshorty]

What is so sad most people born in the 80's would not know about this song and or its importance because school were ordered not to teach and or sing it after about 1987 I believe....................my daughter is 10 and she never heard of it until I taught her........and my 28 year old nephew had no idea what I was talking about......sad.

[@phillies0477]

Remember learning this song in elementary school. Grew up in a nice diverse neighborhood and I'm so glad I did. Black or white, we didn't care.

[@RedheadButNotReally]

WHERE'S THE COCANE???

[@Jake-nk4wg]

No trash here friend.

[@FreeMobileNetwork]

Are you....serious????

[@scooby89]

I will say that they are going too slow for me

[@DEACONRORY]

The tempo is wayyyyyyyyyyy to slow

[@centsoutofnonsense]

Christopher Knox, we have our own countries... Yes COUNTRIES...several on the continent of Africa... Yes I know you thought Africa was a country not a continent, its a continent made up of several countries, NOT counties or states... We also have countries in Asia, Americans like to call it the middle east. We have some in the Caribbean, and India both eastern and western. I know that hard for you to grasp since in America they don't teach geography or sociology in its true form.

[@tysmom]

And we are not all of America either.

[@33sagg]

That a capella section was so flat UGH

[@zacharylavender1568]

The middle section is gravely under pitch!

[@dariusb894]

Sorry, no no no, sorry, no on, please this is a classic and should be performed as originally arranged, you dont see people ablibbing to Bach, or have you? This is shameful for my ears to endure!

[@chim7741]

I've must have listened to 10 different videos of this song and they all sound like they in a Catholic church NO soul SMH

[@HUBassProdigy]

This is painfully slow... #justsayin

[@Jake-nk4wg]

This is the arranger's, Roland Carter, tempo.

[@opinionatedisntbad7528]

this is terrible. sing it the way it should be song. This is terrible. This song has a meaning. A powerful one at that. Sing it right. Don't get cute

[@tysmom]

There are several versions of it -- jazz, choral, gospel--just as there are various versions of Black people. The words remain the same and that is the point. If one has only one version of anything, one is missing something. That's how we learn how to appreciate.

[@opinionatedisntbad7528]

I listened a 2nd time. It's not good. This version distracts from the song power, historical context and spirit

[@pinkbeachloverable]

This song isn't about separating the "negros" from the "whites". This song's lyrics was originally written by a black person and the black "nation" sang this song set to the poem and it was made to give them hope when oppression was so great early in the 1900s. It was not made to separate whites from blacks, it was to give hope. Now white people sing it too and that's not a problem. Anyone can sing it; this song was written simply to give hope.