Let’s not pretend that fans at the Philadelphia Eagles' home opener were booing at a song they deemed divisive. They took the opportunity to boo at Blackness itself. It was an open expression of racism, one rewarded more than not in Trump’s America. Most have no idea of the history of the song, just as they have no understanding of The Star Spangled Banner’s third verse, hirelings, slaves, and all.
In 1900, James Weldon Johnson wrote the poem “Lift Every Voice And Sing.” Johnson was the board chairman of the Florida Baptist Academy in Jacksonville, Florida, a segregated college preparatory school run by Baptists but accepting of all denominations. His brother, John Rosamond Johnson, put the poem to music.
It was first performed by a choir of 500 children at the segregated Stanton school, where James Weldon Johnson was principal. The occasion was the celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Just 35 years after the end of the Civil War, many of the students’ parents had experienced enslavement. The song was a prayer of thanksgiving as well as faithfulness and freedom. The Black Codes period, after enslavement ended 23 years earlier, but Jim Crow was in its infancy and would last another 60+ years. There were more lynchings per capita in Florida during the period James Weldon Johnson wrote this song, but he still penned a tune of hope.
Despite the times, James Weldon Johnson dreamed of a brighter future, and it resonated in Black communities. It was sung in churches, schools, and community centers. By 1917, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) began promoting it as the Negro National Anthem. It wouldn’t be until 1931 that The Star Spangled Banner was recognized as the National Anthem of the United States.
The song is still regarded as a symbol of hope; it is part of the opening of every NAACP meeting and is often sung during Black History Month, although it is no longer performed at segregated schools. It was performed during the opening ceremonies of Super Bowl LVII on national television, sung by Emmy Award winner and Tony Award nominee Sheryl Lee Ralph.
The Stanton School, where Lift Every Voice And Sing was first performed, opened its doors in 1869, a year after Florida rejoined the Union. It was burned down in 1882 and rebuilt; it was destroyed again in 1901 during the Great Fire of 1901. A third building was soon completed, though no public funding was available for projects targeting Black residents. It was condemned less than two decades later as a fire hazard. The Jacksonville Black community led an effort to prevent the school from being decommissioned, and a fourth site was established in 1917, which remains in operation today.
Like the Stanton School, the Negro National Anthem, Lift Every Voice And Sing, is a story of resilience and perseverance. Full of the faith we were taught and the hope we were brought up with.
“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 ’til victory is won.”
I wish I could have stopped here; this was a nice positive article where you had to read between the lines to grasp the negative history surrounding the song. But the losing candidate for Governor of Arizona in the 2022 election, Kari Lake, decided to sit out the singing of the Black National Anthem at the 2023 Super Bowl while all around her stood.
The image went viral, and she didn’t regret her stance or lack thereof in this case. Her campaign tweeted:
“Our girl is against the idea of a ‘black National Anthem’ for the same reason she’s against a ‘white National Anthem. She subscribes to the idea of “one Nation, under God.”
She is either unaware or doesn’t care that the third and fourth verses of The Star Spangled Banner were literally a white National Anthem, praying for the destruction of the “hireling and slave” who made up a portion of the British forces attacking Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 in the Battle of Baltimore.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto —
“In God is our trust,”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Black people fought on both sides during the Battle of Baltimore, during which Francis Scott Key wrote this song. Black men were conscripted to fight fires, as most white men were away serving as soldiers. They worked alongside white firefighters; they were paid at half the rate. Black men were allowed to serve in the Navy, though not the Army. The “hirelings and slaves” Key referred to were those encouraged by the British to run away and join them to be freed, assuming a British victory.
There was no such path to freedom on the American side, and an American victory would mean a return to enslavement. When Key spoke of “freemen” in the fourth verse, he had only white men in mind. Key himself enslaved people at his homestead.
If Kari Lake had been better educated, she might have known that the Star-Spangled Banner is far more divisive than "Lift Every Voice and Sing." The Internet took her cue with attacks on the “woke” NFL for allowing it and others who didn’t see the need for a Black National Anthem, recalling a time when one National Anthem was enough without realizing Lift Every Voice And Sing was recognized first.
In early 2021, Rep. James Clyburn introduced a Bill to the House of Representatives to make "Lift Every Voice and Sing" America’s national hymn. It got as far as being placed on the House calendar in June of 2022, but no further action was taken. The current Republican-led House will not likely take action on such a Bill.
"Lift Every Voice and Sing" is as American and arguably more patriotic than "The Star-Spangled Banner." Kari Lake and her ilk show their contempt for Black Americans.
“America only has ONE NATIONAL ANTHEM. Why is the NFL trying to divide us by playing multiple!? Do football, not wokeness,” said Lauren Boebert.
Compare that to what Sheryl Lee Ralph said at a press conference a few days before the game:
“To me, that shows a major effort by the NFL to be truly inclusive, to say, ‘We’re going to represent all people. What a way to bring us all together.” — Sheryl Lee Ralph
Andra Day performed Lift Every Voice and Sing at the 2024 Super Bowl, and Ledisi performed it in 2025. Alicia Keys performed the song in a pre-recorded video before the 2021 Super Bowl. The following year, Mary Mary performed Lift Every Voice and Sing from outside SoFi Stadium at Super Bowl LVI. It is no coincidence that the NFL included the song for the first time after the George Floyd videos sent the nation into turmoil. The NFL made a token offering to Black people. Will they have the guts to resist the continuing backlash from MAGA forces when it comes? Will Lift Every Voice and Sing be performed at the 2026 Super Bowl, or will the NFL cower in fear?
This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of William Spivey's work on Medium. And if you dig his words, buy the man a coffee.
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