Dorothy Posey Jones

By Robyn Bradley Litchfield
Montgomery Advertiser

Dorothy Posey Jones, who played piano and organ at First Baptist Church on Ripley Street, provided music for mass meetings during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. (Lloyd Gallman, Montgomery Advertiser)

"'God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who has brought us thus far on the way; Thou who has by thy might Led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray ...'"

After reciting these words, Dorothy Posey Jones described how "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," known as the black national hymn, strengthened and comforted those involved in the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Back then, Jones was assistant organist at the First Baptist Church on Ripley Street, and she was delighted to accompany the congregation on the church's pipe organ.

Sitting down at the piano in her living room on a warm August morning, Jones played through a stanza of the poignant piece, her fingers moving gracefully yet forcefully across the keyboard.

The sound was even more powerful as it bellowed from the church organ's pipes, she said, and more impressive accompanying several hundred voices.

"It was so beautifully done. The first two stanzas were at regular tempo, and the third (stanza) was the prayer section, so we slowed it down," she said.

What an incredible sound - and sight. With the organ up front near the pulpit, Jones caught occasional glimpses of a sanctuary overflowing with people focused on freedom and equal rights.

"Every seat was filled, the balcony, every place was filled," she said. "Mics (microphones) were piped into the full basement."

The sense of pride and togetherness that filled the church and Montgomery's black community during the meetings and throughout the civil rights movement is among her most prominent memories.

"Seemingly, the crime in the black community had taken a vacation. There was this oneness. I had never seen anything like that - or since then," she said.

Even now, hearing or playing "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," with words by James Weldon Johnson and music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson, stirs Jones' memories of the bus boycott and the black community's struggle.

But memories aren't worth much if they aren't shared.v "It's a constant thing. Keep focus on it. Never forget the sacrifices," she said. "A lot of people have forgotten the sacrifice and the struggle. All of this (civil rights obtained) was not handed to us on a silver platter. You have to work for it, fight for it. Some of our people died for it."

Through the years, Jones and her husband, Gilbert Jones, have shared their experiences with their own five children, who were either too young to remember the bus boycott or came along later. And each has done his or her part to carry on the message by speaking at workshops or other venues as needed.

"There is a passion out there for freedom and equality," Jones said. "It's something you live for, strive for -- and you don't give up."

And following James Weldon Johnson's words:

"Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us, Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won."