*Of course you know that Francis Scott Key wrote the “Star-Spangled Banner” after the Battle of Baltimore in 1814.
But most people probably aren’t even aware of the song’s forgotten third verse, in which Key glories in the suffering and death of black slaves who has the nerve to fight with the British in opposition to their own captivity:
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
With that background in mind, here’s what the California NAACP has to say about the now increasingly controversial anthem.
The California chapter of the NAACP has a solution for the NFL take-a-knee flap: Get rid of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The organization is urging Congress to jettison the national anthem after passing a resolution at its Oct. 26-29 state conference describing the tune as “one of the most racist, pro-slavery, anti-black songs in the American lexicon.”
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