GLENDALE, Ariz. — Emmy award-winning actress and Waterbury native Sheryl Lee Ralph took one of the biggest stages at Super Bowl LVII on Sunday.
The 66-year-old singer and actress, who earlier this year won an Emmy for her role in “Abbott Elementary, performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The hymn is known as the Black National Anthem.
She made history in the process when she was joined by a choir and became the first person to perform the Black national anthem on the field before the Super Bowl.
"Lift Every Voice and Sing" is a hymn with lyrics written by James Weldon Johnson. According to the NAACP, the song was "prominently used as a rallying cry during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s."
Johnson's brother composed the music for the hymn, which was initially written as a poem. It became the official song of the NAACP in 1919.
Ralph was born in Waterbury in 1956, to Stanley Ralph, a college professor and music teacher, and Ivy Ralph, O.D., a Jamaican fashion designer and creator of the Kariba suit. Her father’s composition “The Nutmeg, Homeland of Liberty,” was named the official Connecticut cantata in 2003.
The Ralphs lived in Kingston, Jamaica and Long Island.
Prior to her Emmy award-winning role, Ralph has spent decades in show business with multiple iconic roles including playing Deena Jones in the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls” and Dee Mitchell in the sitcom “Moesha.” She was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress for her role in “Dreamgirls.”
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