Black anthem to be played before all NFL games
The move by the NFL, which has been rocked by anthem rows, sparks a warning that ‘social justice warriors’ will alienate fans.
A song known as the “black national anthem” will be played before all American football matches from the start of the coming season as part of a campaign to promote social justice.
Lift Every Voice and Sing was written in 1900, and was later adopted by the US civil rights movement but could become a new front in America’s culture wars.
The NFL, American football’s governing body, has announced that along with the Star Spangled Banner, America’s official anthem, the song will be played before the first game of the season between the Super Bowl champions, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the Dallas Cowboys, and at every subsequent match.
Lift Every Voice and Sing was written by the civil rights activist James Weldon Johnson and composed by his brother John Rosamond Johnson.
Adopted by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the song became a rallying cry for black Americans during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
The NFL will spend 250 million dollars on its “Inspire Change” programme this season and has enlisted the rapper Jay-Z to spearhead the campaign.
“We, the National Football League, believe black lives matter,” Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, said in a recent video.
“Without black players, there would be no national football league, and the protests around the country are emblematic of the centuries of silence, inequality and oppression of black players, coaches, fans and staff.”
The NFL has been at forefront of rows about whether sport in the US should be politicised.
It is five years since Colin Kaepernick, a former quarterback with the San Francisco 49ers, ‘took a knee’ during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner in protest at the killing of black people by police.
The murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis last year has given greater momentum to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Sean Hannity, the conservative Fox News presenter, attacked the NFL’s latest decision, saying that Lift Every Voice and Sing would be a “turn off” for fans.
“People like to go to games because it’s a distraction from everyday life,” he said. “Everybody there has a shared passion for a team. It’s a uniting moment. And now the social justice warriors will ruin that.”
Basketball officials recently pledged 300 million dollars over the next decade towards black empowerment, and the MLB, which runs baseball, is spending 150 million dollars on social justice measures.
The Times
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