Read the lyrics and notice that it's a God focused song that reflects the history of many people in our country. Despite the unfortunate nickname some feel it has been given, that doesn't diminish the message or impact that song has on millions of our fellow citizens. It's not like historically white people in the US have done a great job of living up to either "one nation" or "indivisible" in how we treated others who live here. If anything our willingness to accept the meaning it has to our black neighbors would be a small but significant step towards helping them feel part of "one nation under God indivisible".
I did read them and below is the entire lyrics I found when googling them. She only sang the first verse.
The Negro National Anthem: "Lift Every Voice and Sing"
by James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 - June 26, 1938)
Originally written by Johnson for a presentation in celebration of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. This was originally performed in Jacksonville, Florida, by children. The popular title for this work is:
'THE NEGRO NATIONAL ANTHEM'
Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us, Facing the rising sun of our new day begun
Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears have been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
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.
Lest our feet stray from the places, Our God, where we met Thee; Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee; Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand.
True to our GOD,
True to our native land
Nothing here changes my opinion that this is more divisiveness, but I do agree that billing it as the "black Nation Anthem" is "unfortunate". If someone billed the Star Spangled Banner as the "White National Anthem" it would spark national outrage. The happy face you try to put on this does not work, it is what it is. We do not sing the Russian national anthem or any other nation's anthem at our public events such as the super bowl. This country is made up from people from across the globe we are "one nation under God indivisible" even though some try to divide us.
