By Bianca Flowers
(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.”
It will be performed before the 6:30 p.m. EST (2330 GMT) kickoff, ahead of the U.S. national anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner” sung by Jon Batiste and “America The Beautiful” by New Orleans musician Trombone Shorty and Lauren Daigle.
Some social media accounts are calling again for boycotts of the game because of the song, which its critics call divisive. Former Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake, media personality Megyn Kelly and former attorney general hopeful Matt Gaetz have condemned the anthem’s performance in the past. No high-profile names have voiced opposition this year so far.
“Calls to boycott over this incredibly important song are disturbing, disrespectful and distasteful – reinforcing exactly why Lift Every Voice and Sing remains as relevant today as ever,” Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., president of the Hip Hop Caucus, a civil rights and climate group, said in a statement.
The song’s performance comes as the NFL social justice program, which it started in 2020 with a $250-million commitment over 10 years to combat racism and support African American communities facing injustice, comes under scrutiny.
The league faced backlash this week for removing its “End Racism” slogan from the end zones at the Super Bowl, replacing it with “Choose Love.”
President Donald Trump is expected to attend Super Bowl LIX after rolling back several diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that NFL players had previously advocated for, including efforts to address racial inequality and social justice issues within the league.
Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling in protest of racial injustice during the national anthem in 2016, sparking a nationwide movement that became known as “The Kaepernick Effect.”
The demonstration inspired athletes across various sports to take similar stands and Nike made Kaepernick the star of an ad campaign in 2018. He became a free agent after the 2016 season and has not played professional football since.
(Editing by Heather Timmons and Rod Nickel)
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