Key’s ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ lyrics were widely accused by abolitionists of being hypocritical. And though he later spoke out about the cruelty of human slavery, he never did anything to eradicate the system when he was in a position of power. Born in 1779, Key grew up in an old Maryland plantation family and went on to become the US district attorney for Columbia, in Washington state.ĭuring his time in the post, he actively suppressed slavery abolitionists. Significantly, he was also a slave holder. The American flag flying over Fort McHenry, illustrating Francis Scott Key’s ‘The Star Spangled Banner’.įrancis Scott Key was many things: a poet, lawyer and author. It wasn’t until 1931 that it was adopted as the official US anthem. The two were put together and it became a drinking song. And now we do it under the guise of ’legacy.’”Īround 40 years earlier, British composer and early musicologist John Stafford Smith wrote a tune called ‘The Anacreontic Song’. We do it first because we knew what we were doing, and we wanted to be sexist and racist. “And so, I do side with the people who say that we should rethink this as the national anthem, because this is about the deep-seated legacy of slavery and white supremacy in America, where we do things over and over and over again that are a slap in the face of people of colour and women.
But then there are these young people who say that America needs to live up to its real creed.
He says: “The 53-year-old in me says, we can’t change things that have existed forever. Speaking to Parker, historian and scholar Daniel E. President Obama supported Kaepernick’s right to protest, saying it was his ‘constitutional right’ to stay seated.Īn article by Yahoo Music’s Editor in Chief, Lyndsey Parker, asks if it’s time to adopt an anthem with a “more inclusive message”. Four years ago, San Francisco 49’ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick famously refused to stand during the playing of the national anthem. If you want to find out more about the project, visit American student recently refused to sing it at her virtual graduation ceremony, instead performing ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’, often referred to as the ‘Black national anthem’.
It is sponsored by the National Association for Music Education, which feels budget cuts in school music programs are at the heart of all this, since statistics show three out of four Americans say school is where they learned the anthem and other patriotic songs. The most recent and heartwarming example came when 13-year-old Natalie Gilbert forgot the words at an NBA playoff game, getting stuck at the line "What so proudly we hailed …" until Trailblazers' Coach Maurice Cheeks and 20,000 in the stands came to her rescue.įirst lady Laura Bush has now become honorary chairwoman of The National Anthem Project, a three-year education campaign to re-teach America to sing the national anthem, with major singing celebrations throughout the country. The lyric problem is often evident at sporting events. Of those who claim to know all the words, only 39 percent know what follows the line "whose broad stripes and bright stars," the survey found.