Ta-Nehisi Coates find "Lift Every Voice" too "milquetoast" for his taste, and asks for new suggestions for the national anthem.
He offers Nina Simone's "I wish I knew", and "Redemption Song," although recognizing that that song has really had the magic drained from it by drunken frat boys, on campus and on tour (the only thing that rang true in the otherwise forgettable movie "Auberge Espagnol" was just how irritating that song can be when it's known by every drunken dude with a guitar).
I offer "This is my country," although I've always heard the song not only as a classic song demanding equal and full enjoyment of the rights of citizenship ("shall we perish unjust or live equal as a nation") but also as an intervention in the civil rights movement itself, against separatism and black nationalism. I have no idea is this is true, but that (possible) dimension has always stood out for me when listening to the song. But "we've survived a hard road, and we want you to know, you'll face us at last" is uncompromising demands for justice at its best.
I couldn't find the Impressions' version online, and didn't have time to upload it. So here is Cyril Neville singing it. A decent version, but really doesn't do it justice.
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