OFF-KEY
Why is The Star-Spangled Banner considered racist?
THE Star-Spangled Banner has been the US national anthem for nearly a century, but many feel the song is inappropriate.
Here is more on the evolution of the song and its controversial origins.
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What is the Star-Spangled Banner?
The patriotic Star-Spangled Banner is a song that includes lyrics written early in the 19th century.
The words come from a poem written about the bombardment of Fort McHenry in by the British in 1814 during the War of 1812.
The poem has four stanzas, but only the first one is usually performed before sporting events and other gatherings.
Who composed the song?
The lyrics were written by Francis Scott Key, a lawyer and author who witnessed the bombardment.
He wrote a poem titled Defense of Fort McHenry after the Battle of concluded.
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Key was apparently inspired by the US victory and the flag flying over the fort.
The words to the poem were later set to the music for the British song To Anacreon in Heaven.
Why is it considered racist?
Key was a slaveholder who believed Blacks are an "inferior race of people," according to the magazine.
He served as the district attorney for the city of Washington from 1833 to 1840 and defended slavery during his tenure.
He was also a close adviser of President Andrew Jackson.
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"Virtually every American knows the name Francis Scott Key," biographer Marc Leepson told in 2014.
"But they know just one thing about him.
"There was a lot more to the man than just that he wrote 'The Star-Spangled Banner' under dramatic circumstances."
Key writes in the third verse of his historic poem that the "foul footsteps" of slaves who fought with the British have polluted America.
"My students really struggled with that line," author and former teacher Karsonya Wise Whitehead told The Baltimore Sun in 2014.
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What are the lyrics for The Star-Spangled Banner?
Only the first of four stanzas is usually performed:
"O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
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And the rocket's red glare, the bomb bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"
When did The Star-Spangled Banner Become the National Anthem?
The song was made the national anthem in 1931 when Congress passed a measure declaring it so.
It had been recognized for official use by the US Navy in 1889, and by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916.
Over the years there have been many memorable performances, including by Whitney Houston at the 1991 Super Bowl.
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Others have famously botched the song, including actress and comic Roseanne Barr.
In recent years NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and other athletes have kneeled in protest during the national anthem to protest racial inequality and injustice in the US.
Kaepernick to play for.
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