Before 'The Star Spangled Banner' was the national anthem, 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' was the Black national anthem. This year, it turns 125

James Weldon Johnson initially wrote it as a poem a year earlier, and his brother John Rosamond Johnson composed the music. It would soon be adopted by the NAACP as its official song.Today “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” is one of the most acclaimed songs of the African American Civil Rights movement and is often hailed as the Black National Anthem.