As part of the pre-game ceremony of the 57th Super Bowl, Sheryl Lee Ralph performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often called the ‘Negro National Anthem.’ This was the third annual performance of this song at the Super Bowl, previously performed by Alicia Keys and Mary Mary. Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner, initiated this tradition in 2020 following the unrest caused by the death of George Floyd; this song was first performed prior to “The Star Spangled Banner” at every Week 1 NFL game that season. (Side note: 2022 Emmy Award Winner, Sheryl Lee Ralph, 66, began her acting career in 1977, culminating in her current role as ‘Barbara Howard’ on ‘Abbott Elementary’).
The NAACP had dubbed the song the “Negro National Anthem,” by 1919, roughly 12 years before “The Star Spangled Banner” became the national anthem in 1931. Activists used the song as a rallying cry throughout the civil rights movement as they mobilized to fight against Jim Crow laws, end segregation, and ensure black Americans enjoyed equal treatment under the law, especially in terms of voting rights.
James Weldon Johnson wrote the lyrics for “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as a poem in 1899 and the following year his younger brother and composer, J. Rosamond Johnson, added the musical score. The inspiration for the original poem was a commemoration of Abraham Lincoln’s efforts to emancipate slaves. As a song, it was first performed publicly in Jacksonville, Florida, to honor Lincoln’s birthday.
As the author of several collections of poems and books, Mr Johnson is also an interesting figure for his educational accomplishments (the first African American to sit for the Florida Bar Exam in 1897) and prominence in civil rights activism (Executive Secretary of the NAACP 1920-1930)
Lift every voice and sing,
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list’ning 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 chast’ning 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,
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 hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who hast 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.