Radiolab - The Vanishing of Harry Pace: Episode 6

Lift Every Voice: Episode Six from The Vanishing of Harry Pace, a six-part series created by Jad Abumrad and Shima Oliaee. Black Swan Records was first to record the anthem Lift Every Voice and Sing. From a family's Thanksgiving dinner, we portal through to the song's past, present, and future.

Duration: 29m
Broadcast on: 09 Jul 2021
Audio Format: other

Lift Every Voice: Episode Six from The Vanishing of Harry Pace, a six-part series created by Jad Abumrad and Shima Oliaee.

Black Swan Records was first to record the anthem Lift Every Voice and Sing. From a family's Thanksgiving dinner, we portal through to the song's past, present, and future.

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-Wait, you're listening to Radio Lab from WNYC. -From the top. Ready? -Yeah. -This is the vanishing of Harry Pace and miniseries on Radio Lab. Jada Boomerad here with. -Shema. -All right. One more. -This is the final episode of the series. We told you stories about Harry Pace, Black Swan Records, Alpha Waters, Roland Hayes. We're going to end the series with the story of a song. -One record to rule them all. -Can you share your name and titles? -My name is Imani Perry. I am the Hughes Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University. -This story came to us from Imani Perry. You've heard her throughout the series. -Oh, so sweet. Pace is not something that is something that happens. -I don't know what you see us talking about. This looks like a black man in me. I don't know what he's talking about. -Her perspective and work has been a real guide for us and this story begins one of her books, "May We Forever Stand." -You shared at the start of your book that your son learned the song and you were surprised. Can you describe your discovery of him during the song? -My son was five years old when he came home singing the song. She says she came into his room one day. He was sitting on the floor playing with his toys and he was humming it. -I was like, "Where did you learn that?" He said, "At school," and I said, "Do you know what it is?" He said, "It's a black national anthem." And I was surprised because I just didn't anticipate that, you know, he had a great music to try to anticipate that they would be teaching the song. -When his school predominantly black or white, it was predominantly white. It's just, you know, kind of progressive liberal private school. But I also knew that he couldn't possibly have understood the full gravitas of the song. -I guess, in a way, this is probably Black Swan's biggest claim on the historical record. -Journalist and author Paul Slade. -June 1923. Released on Black Swan, I band called the Manhattan Harmony IV. Actually, on the label, it says Negro National Anthem, National Negro Anthem. That is the version that's now actually held in the National Recording Registry. So clearly very significant. -But your son didn't really know what it was at that point. -No. But then, on Thanksgiving holiday, something happened. -So when we went home to Alabama for Thanksgiving, you know, we all come to my grandmother's home. We're all sitting in the den, and I should say my family is very large. My mother is one of 12.

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