“Abbott Elementary” star Sheryl Lee Ralph hit the Super Bowl stage for a powerful rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” before kickoff. 

The soaring performance comes on the 123rd anniversary of the first time the song was performed in public, on Feb. 12, 1900, when a choir of 500 schoolchildren at the segregated Stanton School in Jacksonville, Florida, performed it on former President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, according to NAACP. 

“It is no coincidence that I will be singing the Black National Anthem ... on the same date it was first publicly performed 123 years ago,” Ralph tweeted ahead of the performance. “Happy Black History Month!”

Often referred to as the Black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was written by the Stanton School’s principal, NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, in 1900. His brother, John Rosamond Johnson, composed the music.

Ralph will only be the third performer to sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” at the Super Bowl. The NFL added the song to its pregame show during the 2020 season following racial unrest in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd.