In her digital humanities project, “Singing the Nation into Being,” Dr. Sonya Donaldson, Associate Professor of English at New Jersey City University, has created an archive of performances, remixes, and mashups of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The song, also known as the Black National Anthem, was written by James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson for 500 schoolchildren to perform in honor of Booker T. Washington in 1900.


Building on this research, Dr. Donaldson lectures about the ways that Black women's voices have been used in public performances, including this song, to promote a sense of "we-ness" at different moments in U.S. history.


Hosted on February 25, 2021, by the University of Illinois Chicago Women's Leadership and Resource Center (WLRC) and co-sponsored by the UIC African American Cultural Center and Honors College, as part of WLRC's Let Our Rejoicing Rise project.

UIC Women's Leadership and Resource Center: https://wlrc.uic.edu

Let Our Rejoicing Rise project: https://wlrc.uic.edu/programs/let-our-rejoicing-rise

Dr. Sonya Donaldson's "Singing the Nation into Being" project: http://singingthenation.com

UIC African American Cultural Center: https://aacc.uic.edu

UIC Honors College: https://honors.uic.edu