{"id":153960,"date":"2026-02-13T04:08:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T04:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/153960\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T04:08:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T04:08:32","slug":"lift-evry-voice-and-sing-celebrates-126-years-in-lavilla-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/153960\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Lift Ev\u2019ry Voice and Sing\u2019 celebrates 126 years in LaVilla Streets"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 From 500 students in Jacksonville\u2019s LaVilla neighborhood to the Super Bowl stage, \u201cLift Ev\u2019ry Voice and Sing\u201d has carried through. <\/p>\n

On Monday, the song returned to where it all began.<\/p>\n

Dozens gathered at Lift Ev\u2019ry Voice and Sing Park to commemorate the 126th anniversary of the song\u2019s first performance. The park, built on the land where James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson\u2019s family home once stood, served as the starting point for a historic walking tour through LaVilla.<\/p>\n

Dozens gathered at Lift Ev\u2019ry Voice and Sing Park to commemorate the 126th anniversary of the song\u2019s first performance. (Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just saw it performed at the Super Bowl, so that is a testament to the longevity of the song,\u201d said Carla Mechele, curator of Lift Ev\u2019ry Voice and Sing Park, referring to singer and actress Coco Jones\u2019 performance of the song at Super Bowl 60. \u201cThe fact that it is a song that\u2019s about the past, present and future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The celebration took participants on a journey through Jacksonville\u2019s historic LaVilla neighborhood to the Old Stanton School, where on February 12, 1900, 500 students first lifted their voices to perform what would become known as the \u201cBlack National Anthem.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Lift Every Voice and Sing was a hymn written as a poem by the Johnson brothers. James Weldon Johnson was principal at the Stanton School and put the song together to to celebrate President Abraham Lincoln\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n

Lift Every Voice and Sing was a hymn written as a poem by the Johnson brothers. (Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the song was first performed here in 1900 by about 500 past or present students, those students went out,\u201d Yollie Copeland of Explore Jax Core, who led the walking tour, said. \u201cThey dispersed around the country, some around the globe, and that song has stayed in their heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many participants, the celebration revealed a hidden chapter of Jacksonville\u2019s rich Black history. Asia Oliver, who is from Baltimore, said she found herself deeply moved by the experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like my ancestors in that moment and just listening to the actual words of the song,\u201d she said. \u201cWow, my ancestors really fought for this and I\u2019m just proud to be here … It actually makes me want to go home and research some more black history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The day\u2019s events culminated with a performance at the site of Old Stanton School, bringing the song full circle to where it first resonated through Jacksonville\u2019s streets. As the song returned to its birthplace on its 126th anniversary, the historic grounds still echo with hope, heritage, and harmony.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 From 500 students in Jacksonville\u2019s LaVilla neighborhood to the Super Bowl stage, \u201cLift Ev\u2019ry Voice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[48241,116,118,117,74245],"class_list":["post-153960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-black-history-month","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-lift-evry-voice-and-sing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}