Reuters
[ Source : Reuters ]
A song often referred to as the Black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” will be performed by local artist Ledisi at Sunday’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, the fifth year it has featured in the National Football League championship game.
The song has been targeted with criticism, boycott threats and conspiracy theories from some conservative Americans since it was first used by the league in 2020 for pre-season opening games, following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
Originally a poem written in 1900 by James Weldon Johnson, the leader of the NAACP, it was set to music and became a powerful anthem during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s.
Sung at rallies and protests, it serves as a call for justice and equality for Black Americans, proclaiming “Let us march on ’til victory is won.”
