Brickner: A hymn for us all

Talk about triggered.

Like millions of other Americans, I watched a great Super Bowl game. We saw two remarkable teams making history: two brothers (Travis and Jason Kelce) faced each other. And, for the first time, two Black quarterbacks faced one another. For many decades, Black men were dismissed as “unequipped” to play quarterback, one of the vestiges of “eugenics” — the fake belief that race determines everything.

Perhaps this meeting of quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts provoked certain white conservatives. They couldn’t celebrate the achievement, nor could they label it “affirmative action.” But haters found a way.

Enter: “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as “The Black National Anthem,” sung by Sheryl Lee Ralph before the game. A Newsmax host, a Congresswoman and others expressed outrage: clutching pearls, frothing at the mouth. They claimed it was “divisive.” They claimed the NFL had again gone “woke,” (a term Fox News defines as opposing racial discrimination — in effect, “anti-woke” is sometimes code for being “anti-black” or pro-discrimination.)

One foe claimed the song should be banned.

Cancel culture, anyone?

Sung in schools (like my grade school) and churches, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was born in 1919. Here are some of the lyrics:

Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and Heaven ring
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty…

Facing the rising sun
of our new day Begun,
Let us march on till victory is Won…

Shadowed beneath the Hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land

I haven’t room for all the lyrics, but although nicknamed the “Black National Anthem,” not one word deals with race or color. It is a song that includes all. It was a song that celebrated accomplishments in marching toward equality and expressed hope in God for a triumphant future in a beloved country. Our “Star Spangled Banner,” although honored by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, did not officially become our anthem until 1931. Congressman Jim Clyburn even suggested making “Lift Every Voice and Sing” our national anthem.

Sometimes in Black Pentecostal churches, I heard personal testimonies of what God had done; healing, employment or deliverance from addiction. These did not promote guilt over their pasts. Similarly, President Harry Truman could have testified. As a young man from Missouri, he had no problem using the “n” word, but in 1948, during an election year, he courageously integrated the military. He, too, could sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” achieving victory over hate, with those who fought for freedom overseas finding a little more freedom at home.

And isn’t this history, after all, at least when it’s progress? Not to beat up people with guilt any more than the Germans do in teaching the Holocaust or the Christian gospel beats us up about our individual pasts. We understand the truth and the evil we have overcome.

In 2010, Hilary O. Shelton, a NAACP vice president, told CNN that the hymn "was adopted and welcomed by a very interracial group, and it speaks of hope in being full first-class citizens in our society."

With this song, we can join in a common hymnal. Like the Super Bowl, we can celebrate the increase in equality — voting, transportation, housing, employment — even as we strive to improve the status of all Americans.

Interested in a broad range of issues, including social and faith issues, Brickner serves as a regular contributor to the Forum’s opinion page. She is a retired English instructor, having taught in Michigan and Minnesota.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Forum's editorial board nor Forum ownership.