Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 5, 1992 TAG: 9202050311
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
SINGING OF ANTHEM PROTESTED
Some white parents have objected to the daily singing of a song known as the black national anthem at an elementary school.But the program improvement committee at Larrymore Elementary decided that the song will be sung each morning during Black History Month, as it was last year, said Principal Peggie J. Robertson.
"It went very well," Robertson said of the program that features "Lift Every Voice and Sing" and will include other black-oriented music, such as jazz, gospel and blues. She said she knew of only two parents who objected to the daily singing of "Lift Every Voice and Sing."
The parents said they would not object if the song were part of an annual Black History Month assembly at Larrymore. But they said singing it daily promotes separatism and discriminates against other cultures.
One parent, Sharon Bennett, the mother of a fifth-grader, told The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk that if she tried to have pupils stand and sing a song for whites, "the black community would be upset."
The children are not required to stand or sing the song, school officials said. But Robertson said teachers reported that only a few pupils were not participating in the singing, which started Monday.
Larrymore has about 700 pupils. About 45 percent are black.
Lucy Wilson, chairwoman of the Norfolk School Board, said she knows all the lyrics of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" and finds nothing in them that would promote separation of the races.
"Having the black national anthem sung during Black History Month is quite an appropriate thing to do," she said.
Leslie Carr, a sociology professor at Old Dominion University who studies race relations, said the dispute shows the necessity of explaining the meaning and importance of the song.
"There's a difference between promoting pride in one's history and promoting separatism," Carr said. "I think there's nothing wrong with white students appreciating and valuing and understanding black history."
He said Black History Month activities are important to blacks because "these are people whose history was denigrated and suppressed. I think it's beneficial to them, as well as to white people, to rectify that situation."
Robertson said the song was chosen for its uplifting sound.
The song was written about the turn of the century by two Florida brothers, James Weldon Johnson and R. Rosamond Johnson, to celebrate Abraham Lincoln's birthday.
The song spread throughout the South and then the nation.
The lyrics speak of "a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us" and "full of the hope that the present has brought us."