Till Victory Is Won!
Rev. Jacqui Lewis, Ph.D.

   My classmates and I memorized the lyrics to “Lift Every Voice and Sing” for a Black History Month assembly in fourth grade. We had sung it at church before, but memorizing a song will really make you hear it. James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938), lawyer, writer and activist, was serving as the school principal in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida. Asked to speak at a celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, Johnson decided to write a poem for the occasion. Soon, he asked his brother J. Rosamond Johnson, a music teacher, to set the poem to music. By the time my class memorized it, the song was widely referred to as the Negro National Anthem.
    I love the music; it soars and dips and makes me feel hopeful and as though God is making all of us free. I love the lyrics even more. The words are so evocative . . .

. . . Till earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmonies of liberty.
   When Jesus began his public ministry, he read from the texts of the prophet Isaiah. “The Spirit of God is upon me; God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor
      . . . to proclaim liberty to the captives.” God is in the business of freeing people from bondage, making a way through the wilderness, carving out a path toward wholeness. High as the listening skies, our songs rise to the God of our ancestors who promises the harmony of liberty to all of God’s people. They are songs “. . . full of the faith that the harsh past has taught us, . . . full of the hope that the present has brought us.”

Stony the road we trod . . .
   The journey to the present has been a tough one for African Americans in this country. The story of the enslavement of Africans, the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, Reconstruction, Black Crow Laws, the Segregated South, and the Civil Rights Movement are markers of a long journey full of racism, injustice, a disregard for human life and the annihilation of the human spirit. The yearning for the harmony of liberty continues. Race still matters in America, and sadly the church often re-presents culture. Only 4% of American Congregations are truly multiracial. Studies show that 90% of Americans worship in congregations in which 90% of the people there are just like them.

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered . . .
    Over a way, steep with fear and heartbreak. Over a road, sticky with the blood of the slaughtered. Over a time, filled with hatred and fear, “…felt in the days when hope unborn had died.” One spiritual says, “we’re not what we ought to be but we’re not what we used to be. Thank you Lord for what you’ve done.”

   It is African American History Month. African American history is American history. The struggle for the harmony of liberty is still before us, and it is ours to claim together as a Church. In order to create an American future full of justice, reconciliation, peace, restoration and equality, we need to pursue it together. Shadowed beneath the hand of God, we have the power to make sure no child is left behind, no mother sleeps outside, no father is underemployed, and no student is denied an education due to racial injustice.

   I think multiracial/multicultural congregations help us to rehearse the Reign of God here on earth. Middle and other congregations like ours have the responsibility to train leaders, teach each other and commit to deeper relationships on the road to racial healing and racial justice. We will address our struggle for an antiracist future during African American History Month in worship and education. We will invite clergy and lay leaders to join us in conversation about The Power of Stories: A Guide for Leaders in Multiracial/Multicultural Congregations. We will pray on, press on; . . . let us march on till victory is won.