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Lift every Voice and Sing was publicly performed first as a poem as part of a celebration of Abraham lincoln's birthday by Johnson's brother John in 1900. The song is a prayer of thanksgiving for faithfulness and freedom, with imagery evoking the biblical Exodus from slavery to the freedom of the " promised Land" In 1939 Augusta Savage received commission from New York World's fair and created a 16 foot plaster sculpture called Lift every voice and sing. Savage did not have the funds to have it cast in bronze or to move it and store it. Like other fair temporary installations the sculpture was destroyed at the end of the fair
When the National Football League kicks off its season on Sept. 10, it will do so with a song that is unknown to some Americans and essential to others. “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” otherwise known as the Black national anthem, was introduced to many by Beyoncé when she sang it at Coachella two years ago. But the song has long been a pillar of Black culture and life, sung at church ceremonies, political protests, school graduations and family gatherings. “Four generations of my family, at least, have lived with this anthem,” Imani Perry wrote in May Forever We Stand, her book about the song. “It is our common thread.”During the NFL’s opening week, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” will be performed before each game, ahead of “The Star Spangled Banner,” as an effort to reinforce the league’s professed newfound alignment with Black Lives Matter.
