Like many organizations in the nation, the NFL has been taking action to combat the racial inequality and social injustice issues within the United States and has been on record for saying they will continue the fight into the future. That has also led to the probability of the Black National Anthem, ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing,’ being sung Week 1 of the regular season, too.
The potential move is one that has caught the attention of many, including Jaguars receiver Chris Conley, who said he felt it was a great way to honor black heritage via his Twitter account.
For those who aren’t familiar with it, this song seeks to remind us of our past as a country and to strive to be better. It speaks to all of us not just black people even tho it became a rallying cry for blacks in the Jim Crow era. It is a beautiful message birthed from pain.
— Chris Conley (@FlightConley) July 3, 2020
As many can recall, Conley has been a player at the forefront of battling racism and social injustice since the murderings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and several others. During the Jags’ recent march to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, he spoke about how racial injustices have been foreshadowed and urged those marching to do their part to lead to change.
As for the hymn ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing,’ its history dates back to 1899 when Jacksonville born writer, educator, and NAACP leader, James Weldon Johnson, took the hymn to his brother in composer J. Rosamond Johnson, who constructed the official title. Weldon wrote the hymn after being tasked with coming up with a way to commemorate President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Per the NAACP, ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ was first sung at the segregated Stanton School in Jacksonville, where Weldon was a principle at, by 500 children during the year of 1900.
The Jags will be one of the teams who start their regular season at home, as they will be taking on their division rivals in the Indianapolis Colts on Sept. 13. That means the hymn will be performed at its birthplace by someone (or even a choir perhaps) during the pregame process of Week 1’s AFC South showdown.