It didn’t take long for the Washington Post to reconsider the history of Francis Scott Key, the “controversial poet” whose namesake bridge in Baltimore suffered a catastrophic collapse.
All eyes were on Charm City after a cargo ship crashed into a support beam of the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday morning. It is estimated that six construction workers on the bridge at the time were killed, and two were rescued from the Patapsco River. Investigation is ongoing.
But about 24 hours later, the Post claimed that with the bridge named after him collapsing, Key himself had become “the focus of renewed public attention.”
“This incident shook Baltimore and brought the keys back to the forefront,” the Post said. I wrote it on Wednesday.
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On Tuesday, March 26, 2024, the Francis Scott Key Bridge, a large bridge spanning the Patapsco River in Baltimore, collided with a large cargo ship and collapsed, causing widespread damage in Maryland with multiple people in the water. Emergency response was taken. (Jasper Colt/USA Today)
The Post offered a biographical history lesson on Key, the lawyer famous for writing the novel now known as “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
But as the paper pointed out in its previous report on Keys, published in 2020 after the George Floyd riots, there are “ugly reasons” why this iconic poem has not been chosen as the national anthem for more than 100 years. there were.
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“‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ did not become the national anthem until more than a century after it was written, due to controversy, including Key’s racist views,” the newspaper wrote. “The passage in the third verse of the poem, in particular, has been criticized by those who claim that it was intended to mock or intimidate African Americans who were promised land in return for their service and fled slavery to join the British army.” It has been criticized.”
The article then includes what Key wrote in Section 3, which states that “No shelter could save master and slave from the horrors of flight and the darkness of the grave, and from the darkness of victory.” The stars and stripes wave, O’ It is the land of the free and the home of the brave. ”
The Post later quoted the National Park Service as saying: To tell It is unclear what Key meant by this line, but he was referring to foreign troops in the service of Britain, or to the escaped slaves who made up the British Colonial Marines. Maybe there is.”
The Washington Post labeled Francis Scott Key a “controversial poet” in a headline after the collapse of the bridge of the same name in Baltimore. (Fox News Digital)
“Long before the partial collapse of Ballitmore Key Bridge, the American lawyer and poet’s achievements were a source of controversy, with the National Park Service calling his ‘ambivalent relationship with slavery.’ “Many have argued that he should not be honored because of this,” the Post told readers.
“As previously reported by the Post, Key spoke of black people as a “unique and inferior race.” According to the Park Service, Key’s parents enslaved people on their plantation, and Key himself enslaved six people. Although his wife’s family was a prominent slave labor force in Maryland, Mr. Key, as a lawyer, represented several enslaved people in lawsuits brought against escaped enslaved people. “Key was a fierce opponent of abolition and helped found an organization that advocated for the free immigration of people of color from the United States,” the article continued.
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The Post targeted Francis Scott Key’s “racist views” and how he was a slave owner. (public domain)
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The paper acknowledged that Mr. Key’s “supporters” have pointed out how, as a lawyer, Mr. Key defended enslaved people and freed some, but according to the Park Service, , that the decision “may have been rooted in profit.”
“This legacy has desecrated monuments erected in Key’s honor and led to calls to rename institutions named after him.”In 2017, Francis of Baltimore Red paint was splattered on the Scott Key monument and phrases such as “racist anthem” were scrawled on it. Last year, the Montgomery County Public School System, Maryland’s largest, announced it would consider whether to rename several schools named after enslaved workers, including Francis Scott Key Middle School. ” the post added.
