The Negro National Anthem: Bravo!
Kenneth R. Jenkins
The MAGA people had a meltdown, and so did Journalist and media personality Megyn Kelly by saying, “The so-called Black National Anthem does not belong at the Super Bowl. We already have a National Anthem, and it includes EVERYONE." when it was played during Superbowl XL “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing”.
The account End Wokeness added: “There is no such thing as a “Black National Anthem.” If you have a problem with the AMERICAN National Anthem, feel free to leave.”
Leave???!!!!
Really????
Are you kidding me????!!!
Did they know when this anthem was written because of racism that was rampant all over the nation especially down South and that’s why it was written in the first place?
“It spoke to the history of the journey of African Americans and for many Africans in the diaspora [who] struggled through to get to a place of hope”.
Derrick Johnson, NAACP President and CEO
In case you didn’t know that Lift Every Voice and Sing was written by James Weldon Johnson and set to music by his brother J. Rosamond Johnson (1873–1954).
This Negro National Anthem premiered in 1900 and was sung in the African American communities and churches while the NAACP promoted the hymn as the official national anthem in 1917.
The significate of this hymn is beyond reach and scope of the struggles of African Americans that protest during the killing of George Floyd and by means of the media stepping in like Google honoring Juneteenth and Superbowl LV by singer-songwriter Alicia Keys, the song is stronger than ever.
And so, let those oppose against this hymn, a theme, an anthem to celebrate who we are as a race of people because that my friend is Black History also known as America’s history that cannot be erased from any book but, placed in the heart and soul so of all those are living today who’s those shoulders we stand on.
Regretfully, there are some groups who want to shut down the American experience for our African American brothers and sisters because of they are blowing in the winds of hatred, racism and just ungodly behavior that becomes of them. One day those same people who opposes anything to with the Black Experience will wake up from their slumber of racial indifferences and come to the knowledge that they’re not in Kansas anymore.
This hymn is a hymn of hope enlightened to the masses who has been struggling for so long and so hard can now say in the words President Obama, “YES WE CAN!” And from that, we thank God for the journey we are on right now in this space and time of history.
Kenneth R. Jenkins is a freelance writer, poet, author of three self-published books, minister and devoted husband living in Savannah, GA.
