Some NBA teams play ‘negro anthem’

WASHINGTON — Several National Basketball Association teams have played what is known as the “negro national anthem” at games during Black History Month thanks to the urging of a retired Howard University professor.

Eugene Williams, a 76-year-old retiree in Clinton, Maryland, has made it his goal to get professional and collegiate teams to play “Lift Every Voice and Sing” during February. He has been calling and writing teams for the past six months.

So far, four NBA teams have agreed to play the song. At Wednesday night’s Golden State-Washington game, the song was expected to be played during a timeout.

The Oklahoma City Thunder played it in January, Williams said. The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors played “Lift Every Voice and Sing” this month. And Williams plans to be in the audience to hear the song when the Wizards host the Warriors on the last day of Black History Month.

“I had no idea it would amount to all of this,” Williams said.

He plans to keep pushing for more NBA teams play the song during Black History Month. He is also pushing for universities to include the song during games, having already heard it at Georgetown University games.

“My mission will be completed if it’s done in stadiums all over the United States of America,” Williams said. “That is my hope. That is my prayer. It will make our players feel more positive about themselves and abut the game ... it will uplift their spirits as it does mine.”

James Weldon Johnson, an author, civil rights activist and educator, wrote the lyrics to “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” and his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, an accomplished musician, wrote the music, for the Stanton School celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday in 1900. A chorus of 500 black children san.

The song became an anthem for black Americans during the civil rights movement in the 1960s.