Why The ‘Black National Anthem’—Played At NFL Games And U.S. Open—Is Angering The Right Wing

Topline

“Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a hymn written by former NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson in 1900, calls for the liberation of Black Americans and is widely known as the “Black National Anthem,” but its recent inclusion in sporting events is angering critics who have accused the song of dividing Americans by race—hey! that’s the job of the angry critics!

Key Facts

Chief Critics

The inclusion of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” at sporting events has sparked anger from right-wing pundits and politicians, including Kari Lake, who is a frequent and vocal critic of the song. “America has only ONE National Anthem and that Anthem is color blind,” Lake tweeted after last week’s Chiefs and Lions game, accusing the NFL of “trying to force this divisive nonsense down America’s throats.” Lake has previously slammed the NFL for including the anthem at games, and a photo of Lake at the Super Bowl earlier this year—sitting during “Lift Every Voice and Sing” while those around her stood—went viral among right-wing users on social media. Brigitte Gabriel, founder of conservative grassroots organization ACT for America, slammed the NFL as a “woke sports league” for performing the song. Megyn Kelly criticized the U.S. Open for including “America the Beautiful” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” before the men’s final—and not the national anthem—tweeting: “Can we just have a non-woke, non-agenda pushing men’s tennis championship?” Jenna Ellis, a former lawyer for Donald Trump and one of his 18 co-defendants charged for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia, criticized the performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and urged her social media followers to “reject it until it’s relegated to the trash bin of history where it belongs.” Previous performances of the song—particularly Ralph’s at the Super Bowl—also garnered right-wing criticism. “America only has ONE NATIONAL ANTHEM. Why is the NFL trying to divide us by playing multiple!?” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) tweeted in February, garnering nearly 100,000 likes. Right-wing pundit Benny Johnson called for the song to be made “illegal.”

Contra

Proponents of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as the Black national anthem criticized the right-wing backlash on social media. “They played both songs, like they always do – the national anthem was played right before kickoff, like it always is. If raising up Black voices bothers you, it says more about you than the NFL,” one user tweeted, garnering 11,000 likes. “The song isn’t intended to divide anyone,” another user tweeted, calling it “a song of inspiration, hope and perseverance.” Ralph previously defended her Super Bowl performance of the song, stating: “The fact that people want to feel divided by such sentiment and such lyrics… I guess there’s nothing that will ever truly make them happy until America is no longer the home of the free and the brave.”

Key Background

After James Weldon Johnson and his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, composed the song in 1900, it took hold among many Black organizations. It became the official song of the NAACP, who named it the Black national anthem, in 1919. The song later became an important symbol during the Civil Rights movement and was sung during meetings to organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott and quoted by Martin Luther King Jr. “Lift Every Voice and Sing” has been performed by many popular artists, including Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Jon Batiste. In 2018, Beyoncé included “Lift Every Voice and Sing” on the setlist for her famous Coachella performance; the live performance of the song has more than 18 million streams on Spotify.

Tangent

Including “Lift Every Voice and Sing” before week one games is one of several initiatives the NFL announced it would undertake in 2020 to combat racial injustice. In June 2020, just weeks after the killing of George Floyd, the NFL pledged to donate $250 million over a 10-year period to funds that combat systemic racism. In 2021, the league announced it would allow players to use one of six messages in support of racial justice on their helmets: “End Racism,” “Stop Hate,” “It Takes All of Us,” “Black Lives Matter,” “Inspire Change” and “Say Their Stories.” The NFL’s social justice efforts also come several years after Colin Kaepernick, then a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, knelt during the national anthem in 2016 as a protest against police brutality against Black Americans. His protest ignited backlash from conservatives, and by the next year, Kaepernick was no longer signed to an NFL team. He reached a multimillion dollar settlement with the NFL in 2019 over claims he was denied employment with the league because he knelt for the anthem.

Further Reading

Kari Lake Blasts NFL For Playing ‘Black National Anthem’ Before Lions-Chiefs Game (BET)

A History of the Newly Resurgent ‘Black National Anthem’ (TIME)

“Do football, not wokeness”: Conservatives angered over Black national anthem sung at the Super Bowl (Salon)