The Man Behind the Anthem They Forgot You've sung "Lift Every Voice and Sing" thousands of times—the Black national anthem. But do you know James Weldon Johnson? Born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1871, Johnson was a Renaissance man who changed history six times over. According to the NAACP and PBS, he wrote the anthem's lyrics in 1900 for 500 schoolchildren at a Lincoln birthday celebration—and those children spread it across the South, making it the hymn that defined a movement. But that's just

NFL Said "Too Slow"—Whitney's Super Bowl Anthem Became #1 Hit In January 1991, Whitney Houston walked into a Los Angeles studio to record the national anthem for Super Bowl XXV. According to ESPN's Jim Steeg, she nailed it in one take. But when NFL executives heard the recording, they demanded a redo—calling it "too slow." Whitney's father and manager said no. Ten days into the Gulf War, on January 27, 1991, Whitney stood before 73,000 people at Tampa Stadium with 750 million watching worldwide.