‘America has ONE national anthem!’ NFL fans divided as black national anthem ‘Lift Every Voice And Sing’ is sung at Super Bowl LVII as Eagles and Chiefs do battle… and Rihanna is still to come
- Black national anthem, ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing,’ was sung before Super Bowl LVII
- It became a ‘black national anthem’ when it was adopted by the NAACP in 1917
- A pre-recorded rendition was played before the Super Bowl in 2021 and 2022
The ‘black national anthem’ was performed before the Super Bowl for the third time in a row, causing outrage on social media.
Sheryl Lee Ralph, the star of the comedy series ‘Abbott Elementary,’ performed the anthem on Sunday night ahead of Super Bowl LVII between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
The song became an unofficial ‘black national anthem’ when it was adopted by the NAACP in 1917. It was first recited exactly 123 years ago, in 1900. Performances have been criticized for dividing instead of unifying the country.
Others argue that singing the anthem is a positive gesture that acknowledges the suffering of black Americans – a step towards healing the county’s racial division.
The outrage came as the Chiefs and Eagles were drawing 14-14 after a scoop-and-score touchdown scored by Nick Bolton.
Sheryl Lee Ralph sings ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ before Super Bowl LVII on Sunday night
Ralph revealed that she would be singing the anthem before the Super Bowl in a tweet
Ralph announced that the news she would be performing the song on Twitter. ‘123 years ago today Lift Every Voice and Sing was performed publicly for the 1st time. Today I will sing it for the 1st time as part of the @SuperBowl pre game show in the stadium!’ she wrote on Sunday morning.
The song was sung before both Super Bowl LV and LVI, performed by Alicia Keys in 2021 and Mary Mary in 2022. However Ralph was the first person to have sung the song on the actual field. Both previous performances were broadcast as pre-recorded clips.
The song was originally a poem written by James Weldon Johnson, a former NAACP leader. Its lyrics describe the struggles and aspirations of black Americans at the turn of the 20th century.
The NFL began playing the song before NFL games in the 2020 season after the protests that came in the wake of the killings at the hands of the police of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
Gospel duo Mary Mary sang Lift Every Voice and Sing ahead of the 2022 Super Bowl. However, unlike Ralph, they performed outside the stadium and the performance was recorded in advance
Artist Alicia Keys became the first to sing the anthem before the Super Bowl in 2021
Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert said on Twitter: ‘America only has ONE NATIONAL ANTHEM’
It happened at roughly the same time that NFL player Colin Kaepernick famously refused to take the knee as The Star-Spangled Banner was sung.
On social media reactions to the news the the anthem would be sung for the third year in a row at the Super Bowl were mixed. Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert said on Twitter: ‘America only has ONE NATIONAL ANTHEM.’
Her critics attacked her, however, suggesting that her tweet sowed more division than the inclusion of the anthem. Luke Zaleski, Legal Affairs Editor for Condé Nast accused the politician of hypocrisy.
‘The gaslighting is the fact that she’s using the concept of unity to divide. She’s doing what she’s accusing the NFL of. It’s a fake grievance contrived to irk and produce the effect of further fracturing society,’ he wrote.
Another noted that not only is it Black History Month, but it is also the first time two black quarterbacks have faced each other in Super Bowl history.
Ralph (pictured), the star of the comedy series ‘Abbott Elementary,’ announced on Sunday that she would be singing ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ during the Super Bowl at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona
Lavern Spicer, who ran as a Republican candidate for election to the House in Florida last year, expressed the idea that there should only be one national anthem for all Americans
Darrell B. Harrison said the NFL was making a mistake by allowing the anthem to be sung, also suggesting that it made America a nation of two anthems’
Social media personality Brian Krassentein attacked those who objected to the singing of the anthem. ‘If you have a problem with the Black National Anthem then you are one of the reasons it’s being sung,’ he wrote on Twitter.
Lavern Spicer, who ran as a Republican candidate for election to the House in Florida last year, expressed the idea that there should only be one national anthem for all Americans.
‘The Black National Anthem is the Star Spangled Banner. The White National Anthem is the Star Spangled Banner. The Mixed National Anthem is the Star Spangled Banner,’ she wrote.
Darrell B. Harrison said the NFL was making a mistake by allowing the anthem to be sung, also suggesting that it made America a nation of two anthems’.
‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ lyrics:
Lift every voice and sing,
‘Til 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 ’til 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 has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
‘Til 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
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