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Vanessa Williams’ performance of ‘black national anthem’ at PBS July 4th celebration draws blowback

July 5, 2021 | | Print Article

Just as America has seen in abundance the past year or so, today’s racially divisive woke culture was ever-present this year as the nation celebrated Independence Day.

Be it NPR trashing the Declaration of Independence as “a document with flaws and deeply ingrained hypocrisies” that included “a racist slur,” or PBS featuring Vanessa Williams performing the “Black national anthem” during its 4th of July coverage, there was an orchestrated effort to exploit the holiday to push the left’s racial agenda.

And based on the blowback, that agenda is beginning to wear thin on folks.

Appearing on PBS’s annual Capitol Fourth program, the first black woman to win the Miss America Pageant referenced Juneteenth, which has now been established as a federal holiday, when commenting on performing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which is often referred to as the “black national anthem.”

“It’s in celebration of the wonderful opportunity that we now have to celebrate Juneteenth. So we are reflective of the times,” Williams told the Associated Press.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to proclaim that enslaved black people in the state were free — this coming well over two years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which established that all persons held as slaves “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”

In effect, Juneteenth marks the day news of the Emancipation Proclamation reached Texas.

Williams praised PBS for allowing social justice to be front and center in their 4th of July program, a focus on how we are different rather than how we are alike.

“We’re reflective of the times and I’m happy to be part of a tremendous show that the producers are aware and willing to make the changes that have happened within the past year and a half,” the actress and singer said.

For the record, PBS did allow the actual national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” to be performed.

Williams hosted “A Capitol Fourth,” which has be on air for 41 years. She performed at last year’s show also and made social justice central to that appearance, selecting Stephen Sondheim’s song, “Not While I’m Around,” according to USA Today.

Williams said her choice of songs expressed the angst that black mothers feel, saying the song “talked about just the connection that you have with your child and wanting to protect them, which was definitely reflective of George Floyd and how everybody felt that pain.”

Make no mistake, the radical left sees “Lift Every Voiceand Sing” as a replacement for “The Star-Spangled Banner” which they claim is racist because of a misunderstood lyric in the third stanza — the vast majority of Americans have never heard of the stanza, let alone sing it.

As for the blowback on social media, if there was a theme it would center on what divides us as a people rather than what unites us.

Here’s a quick sampling of the responses to the story from Twitter:

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Tom Tillison
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