Ledisi Gives Powerful Rendition of Black National Anthem 'Lift Every Voice and Sing,' Some Fans Are Unhappy

Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Ledisi sang the Black national anthem "Lift Every Voice and Sing" during the pre-game festivities at Super Bowl LIX, drawing the ire of some football fans.

Ledisi performed a powerful rendition of the song prior to the kickoff for the much-anticipated game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. She performed the song with 125 students from New Orleans High School to celebrate the hymn's 125th anniversary.

While many Super Bowl fans celebrated Ledisi's rendition, others were unhappy with her choice.

"This is so wrong," one user commented on X (formerly known as Twitter).

"This needs to stop. There [is] one national anthem. Stop dividing people based on the color of their skin. Black people are Americans. They don't need their "own" anthem," another user wrote.

History of 'Lift Every Voice and Sing'

The performance of the Black National Anthem has become a significant part of recent Super Bowl history. It began in 2020 after George Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. Floyd was a 46-year-old Black man who was murdered on May 25, 2020, by Derek Chauvin, a white police officer.

The incident began when police were called to a store where Floyd allegedly used a counterfeit $20 bill. During the arrest, Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face-down on the street. Floyd repeatedly said he couldn't breathe and eventually became unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital shortly after.

The song was originally written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson in 1900 and performed by a choir of 500 schoolchildren in Jacksonville, Florida, to celebrate President Abraham Lincoln's birthday. The NAACP also adopted it as its official song, making it a powerful symbol during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Originally published in Enstarz.