Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
By Tom Archdeacon
Before the traditional pre-taped rendition of the Star Spangled Banner and the loud and showy player introductions on the big video scoreboard above the Nutter Center court comes the most unexpected and now specially-embraced part of the pregame ceremony at Wright State basketball games this season.
Once the Raiders’ players and their opponents have lined up on both sides of the court, the arena fills with “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a beautiful, 122-year-old hymn that began as a poem and was soon set to music and sung by schoolchildren to honor the late Abraham Lincoln on his birthday.
Since 1919 it has been considered to be the Black National Anthem, though back then the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) dubbed it the “Negro National Anthem.”
It’s interesting to note it took on its lofty status some 12 years before “The Star Spangled Banner” was designated the national anthem by then President Herbert Hoover.
It’s also worth noting that song was written by Francis Scott Key, a slaveholder, and that a latter stanza included lyrics about capturing escaped slaves who fought for the British in the War of 1812.
As for “Lift Every Voice,” it isn’t just a song, it’s a history lesson, a thanksgiving prayer and a call to unity that resonates now – on Martin Luther King Day – more than ever.
