Daily Mail.com
PBS has divided opinion with its decision to have Vanessa Williams sing the ‘Black National Anthem’ during its July 4 celebration, in a nod to Juneteenth being made a federal holiday.
The singer and actress, who was the first black woman to be crowned Miss America, will perform the song ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ while hosting PBS’s 41st ‘A CapitolFourth’ annual celebration, which airs Sunday.
The song was first written as a poem in 1900 by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson and has long held the nickname as the ‘Black National Anthem.’