When it comes to the Black National Anthem do you know the words to the song? Did you even know the song existed?
The question is a valid one after the historic performance during the Super Bowl on Feb. 12. “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was performed by “Abbott Elementary” actress Sheryl Lee Ralph. The performance marked the first time in the history of the Super Bowl that the Black National Anthem was performed.
And yet with all the greatness of the historic moment, some people feel as if the National Anthem was the only important one. Lauren Boebert, a U.S. representative for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, stated “Why is the NFL trying to divide us by playing multiple!? Do football, not wokeness.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a U.S. representative for Georgia 14th Congressional District, also tried to undercut the anthem’s importance.
“Chris Stapleton just sang the most beautiful national anthem at the Super Bowl. But we could have gone without the rest of wokeness,” she said.
Growing up we sang this song from elementary to high school and even sang it at church during the month of February. This was the only time we would sing it.
Why isn’t this song as popular as the National Anthem for America? Is it downplayed because it represents African Americans and our freedom?
When asked, several people on campus if they knew the Black National Anthem, only a few said “yes.”
“I found out about the Black National Anthem on my own. Through my own research about my people I discovered our anthem,” said student Camry Turner. “Only within this past decade of my life have I heard it become ‘mainstream.’ So I don’t find it too hard to believe that other Black people haven’t heard it or about it, especially if they’re young. I find it disheartening but not surprising that we have to go searching for our history.”
I feel as if the school system is letting down the students when it comes to black history and what it represents. The Black National Anthem was written in 1900, which means that it’s been 123 years and it’s still not being taught.
America makes sure that we know the National Anthem and what it represents, but turns away when it comes to the Black National Anthem.
“It’s crazy and baffling that more black people don’t know about it but they know America’s National Anthem by heart,” said Johnisha Hampton.
LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING
Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
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.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears have been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
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.
Lest our feet stray from the places, Our God, where we met Thee; Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee; Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand.
True to our GOD,
True to our native land
– James Weldon Johnson