We Only Have One National Anthem and It's for All Americans
Last month, the NFL announced that its Super Bowl pregame festivities on Feb. 11 will once again feature the “black national anthem.”
The so-called anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” has been featured in some capacity at every Super Bowl since 2021, according to The Hill.
In other words, the woke corporate establishment continues to eviscerate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
After all, wokeness amounts to repackaged Marxism. And nothing would have wounded King more than a communist-led return to racial segregation.
Alas, the NFL has sanctioned exactly that.
“Lift Every Voice and Sing”
Prior to Super Bowl LVIII between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” will be performed by Grammy-winning R&B singer and Oscar-nominated actress Andra Day.
According to the NAACP, civil rights leader James Weldon Johnson composed the song as a poem in 1900.
Untainted by the segregationist label “black national anthem,” the song would have the capacity to inspire listeners. In fact, its lyrics should strike any true conservative as a beautiful expression of hope and gratitude.
For instance, Johnson’s hymn begins with the following lines:
Lift every voice and sing,
‘Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list’ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
And surely none but a hardened atheist could object to these prayerful expressions:
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
In short, it is a beautiful song.
Woke-Marxist History
The problem starts, however, when modern-day segregationists showcase “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as the “black national anthem.”
No such anthem exists or ever could exist in a nation dedicated to the pursuit of true equality. Indeed, the very notion of a separate national anthem based on skin color should offend all Americans’ sensibilities.
And that notion flows from a toxic woke-Marxist historical narrative.
To illustrate, consider the following passage from a recent story on the “black national anthem” that appeared on NJ.com:
“‘The Star Spangled Banner’ was written in 1814, nearly 50 years before slaves were emancipated, and adopted by Congress as the U.S. National Anthem in 1931, more than 30 years before segregation was outlawed.”
Now, consider the meaning of that passage and its implications.
This year marks the 210th anniversary of the composition of Francis Scott Key’s legendary poem, originally entitled “Defence of Fort McHenry.”
Key penned the poem on Sept. 14, 1814, after witnessing the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the waning months of the War of 1812.
Passages like the one from NJ.com, however, foreclose all historical questions. And they do so on purpose.
In short, because Key wrote the poem that became “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the end of slavery, and because Congress adopted it as the U.S. national anthem before the end of segregation, it supposedly carries a taint.
That would mean, of course, that anything written before, say, 1965 carries the same taint. In one stroke, therefore, we find that the toxic woke-Marxist narrative would invalidate nearly all of U.S. history.
And that should come as no surprise. After all, Marxists have always made war on the past.
They have done so because they recognize that unifying national narratives pose a threat to their own self-serving worldview, which posits a simplistic oppressor-oppressed narrative of human history.
Since 1917, communists have used this tactic to build totalitarian regimes. Those regimes, according to one major study, slaughtered approximately 110 million people in the 20th century.
Thus, those who oppose the “black national anthem” in fact oppose one of the darkest forces in history.
Black Americans in the War of 1812
Truth always provides an antidote to totalitarianism. And the truth is that U.S. history involves countless nuances that defy the simplistic woke-Marxist narrative.
For instance, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command, blacks comprised one-sixth of all U.S. naval personnel during the War of 1812.
In other words, as Key sat writing the future U.S. national anthem, black Americans fought the invading British.
Then, less than four months after the assault on Fort McHenry, the British met their match in Gen. Andrew Jackson. At the Battle of New Orleans on Jan. 8, 1815, Jackson had assistance from hundreds of black American soldiers.
On Dec. 18, 1814, prominent Louisiana lawyer and future statesman Edward Livingston had issued a passionate exhortation to Jackson’s hastily assembled militia.
Livingston addressed his “fellow-citizens, of every description.” He also singled out the “men of color.”
“Soldiers! From the shores of Mobile I collected you to arms. I invited you to share in the perils and to divide the glory of your white countrymen. I expected much from you, for I was not uninformed of those qualities which must render you so formidable to an invading foe. I knew that you could endure hunger and thirst and all the hardships of war.”
Then, he appealed to their patriotism.
“I know that you loved the land of your nativity, and that, like ourselves, you had to defend all that is most dear to man. But you surpass my hopes. I have found in you, united to these qualities, that noble enthusiasm which impels to great deeds,” Livingston said.
Furthermore, one must recall why Americans — including free black Americans — fought the War of 1812 in the first place.
On June 1, 1812, President James Madison delivered a war message to Congress. Madison laid out a decade’s worth of U.S. grievances, beginning with the most serious of all.
“British cruisers have been in the continued practice of violating the American flag on the great highway of nations, and of seizing and carrying off persons sailing under it,” Madison wrote.
This was the insidious practice of impressment. British warships regularly boarded U.S. vessels in search of deserters from the Royal Navy.
On many occasions, unscrupulous British officers — short on manpower — pressed American sailors into service against their will. Over a period of 10 years, thousands of U.S. citizens fell victim to this criminal practice.
And what did impressment have to do with black Americans or the “black national anthem”?
British officers boarded U.S. ships in search of British subjects. Thus, when they pressed American sailors into service under this pretext, they nearly always chose white sailors, for in doing so they at least could later claim mistaken identity. The white Americans, after all, looked British.
So, ironically, impressment presented perhaps the only situation in early America wherein black skin afforded an advantage.
This meant that when black Americans fought in the War of 1812, they fought for their white countrymen. In some cases, they fought for their white fellow crewmen.
More than a century later, “The Star-Spangled Banner” became the national anthem. And it belonged to everyone, including those black soldiers and sailors.
A separate black national anthem would erase those patriots from the national history they helped forge.
The Real National Anthem
On Jan. 27, 1991, the New York Giants defeated the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV. The game took place 10 days after the start of the Persian Gulf War.
Before the game, as tens of thousands of fans waved tiny American flags, pop superstar Whitney Houston belted out perhaps the most iconic rendition of the national anthem ever performed.
Readers of a certain age may relive that performance below. Younger readers may — and should — experience it for the first time.
While writing this story, I conducted the most scientific data collection imaginable. I texted two friends of mine who, like me, grew up in the 1980s. I asked them to name the greatest national anthem performance of all time.
Their identical answers came back in seconds: “Whitney.”
That anthem belonged to Houston and everyone in America in 1991. It belonged to the soldiers and sailors of the War of 1812. It belongs to all of us.
There is no other national anthem.
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