May We Forever Stand by Imani Perry

    If you look at the anthem (or unofficial anthem) of minorities (or formerly disenfranchised minorities) you’ll find that they’re not that complicated. Hatikvah (the Israeli anthem) is kind of short compared to others (at least compared to the Star-Spangled Banner) and The Star-Spangled Banner is simple, with a melody lifted from a common bar song. In the days before 1776, the Continental Army didn’t even have an anthem; their marching songs were all Irish. Even Britain’s God Save the Queen is short, and the Brits were not a disenfranchised minority.

    Imani Perry, of Princeton University, begins with Booker T. Washington, James Weldon Johnson, and other Black leaders looking to create greater influence. Johnson wrote Lift Every Voice and Sing for Lincoln’s birthday, which was two days before that of Frederick Douglass. The song is famously optimistic, and the author suggests that JW Johnson, and his brother Rosamond (who composed the melody) had a lot to be optimistic about, given that they both fled (racist) Jacksonville, Florida. Still, the positive outlook of the song contrasts to the troubles of the time.

    The fourth chapter of this book (The Bell Tolls for Thee) recounts the widespread airplay of the song in WWII, thanks to the increase in the African American presence on American radio. The author describes the extreme patriotism in the contribution to the war effort, though some historians would suspect that it had to do more with the desire to avoid racial unrest. The song would now be heard not just in schools or churches, but at union rallies too, thanks to A. Phillip Randolph.

   The final chapter, however, is a bit bleak. Though the song Lift Every Voice and Sing was played at the inauguration of African American mayors, it couldn’t mask the realities; the goals of these mayors were not possible, not with high unemployment, rampant crime and drug use, and loss of property tax. The Reagan-era move to the right didn’t help things either. Dallas politician Sam Attlesley called the African American voters an “army with no general,” and the author questions whether the media ever really cared about the Civil Rights struggle. She also suggests that the wealthier African Americans had become a petty bourgeois who looked down on their less-successful brethren.

    Let me conclude by questioning the use of ANY anthem. The Star-Spangled Banner is a song about 1812, and that’s it. The song is not about the people who toiled to make the colonies successful, nor about the constitution, or any of the Supreme Court cases. Then you have the Israeli anthem, Hatikva, with a melody lifted from an Italian opera. Britain’s God Save the Queen is all about the Queen, and not the people. If you look at all the anthems, you’ll find that none of them truly represent the people or their accomplishments.