Donna Jane Krupkin of Nashville said a debate over America’s national songs surprised her because it left out “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often called the Black national anthem. Her church sings it once a month as an opening hymn. In her letter, she wrote that the song holds sorrow and majesty without referring to war. That community practice sits beside a question about the country’s official voice—and who gets heard when people choose it.
The Official Song, and the Others
The Atlantic’s October 13, 2026, letters section opened with Owen Jansson of Ann Arbor, Mich., arguing that “America the Beautiful” should replace the national anthem. He said the song celebrates the country’s grandeur and evokes principles in its founding documents. Jansson responded to Jake Lundberg’s essay “Never Call Retreat,” published in the July issue, which described two national anthems: the official “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the unofficial but sacred “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
Those labels create a hierarchy of their own. One song holds official status; another is called sacred but doesn’t hold that position. Readers replied with songs tied to different histories, religious practice, personal memory, and ideas about freedom. There’s no single consensus in these letters. Instead, readers make competing claims about what the nation’s music ought to mean.
Krupkin said James Weldon Johnson composed “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as a poem in 1900, and his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, set it to music. Her letter brought a community’s regular singing into a magazine conversation about national symbols. It challenged the omission directly.
Jerry Albritton of Brandenburg, Ky., proposed “Amazing Grace” as a spiritual national anthem that prompts reflection on the country’s struggle to abolish slavery. He wrote that John Newton wrote the words in 1772, before Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Albritton called “Battle Hymn” a battle cry for abolitionist action and “Amazing Grace” an anthem for people seeking freedom. He hoped attention to both songs would lead the nation toward “real freedom for all Americans.”
Memory, Music, and Who Gets Heard
Laura Cardinal of Hereford, Ariz., said the July issue cover featuring the music for “Battle Hymn of the Republic” sat on her piano. She played it loudly and often. Sandy Shapiro of Washington, D.C., described Elaine Showalter’s biography of hymn writer Julia Ward Howe, titled “The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe.” Shapiro quoted an inscription from Showalter: “Julia's motto was 'Up to Date!' Good words for us as well.” Shapiro also said The Atlantic had celebrated Howe again 164 years after it first published her poem.
Nigel Clements of Mississauga, Canada, recalled hearing “Battle Hymn” at Winston Churchill’s funeral at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London on January 30, 1965. At Churchill’s request, a huge choir performed it, Clements said. He remembered the experience as moving and unforgettable.
Jeanette Condie Pearson of Salt Lake City, Utah, recalled her father, Richard P. Condie, directing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir from 1957 to 1974. She said he called Eugene Ormandy at 2 a.m. and asked him to consider a score for “Battle Hymn.” Ormandy initially said he wasn’t “excited” by the idea and doubted it would work, but he later agreed at Condie’s insistence. The choir’s recording became a hit in 1959, reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, and stayed there for 16 weeks. Condie won a Grammy for the performance the following year.
Pearson said the recording brought prominence to the choir and orchestra and began a lifelong collaboration and friendship between her father and Ormandy. She urged the nation to answer Howe’s lyrics with forgiveness, love, and charity. She ended: “Then, I think, we could say with confidence that 'His truth is marching on.'”
The Hymn as an Argument
Lundberg replied that Howe wrote “Battle Hymn of the Republic” at the end of 1861, addressing the country’s gravest crisis in a biblical idiom familiar to many Northerners. He called the hymn a “capacious vessel for arguments over the American idea,” while acknowledging its stark, violent imagery and dark interpretations. In its best application, he wrote, the words call people to uphold their highest ideals during crises.
The letters don’t settle which song should hold official standing. They show readers arguing over it through abolition, faith, national memory, and the songs people actually sing together. The anthem question remains open on the page.