The children continued to sing the song, popularizing it for generations to come. Later, the NAACP adopted the song as “The Negro National Anthem.” In calling for earth and heaven to “ring with the harmonies of Liberty,” the lyrics spoke out subtly against racism and Jim Crow laws—and especially the huge number of lynchings accompanying the rise of the Klan at the turn of the century. By the 1920s, copies of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” could be found in black churches across the country, often pasted into the hymnals.