In November, Alabama voters will decide whether to amend that State’s constitution to “require all public schools to broadcast” or have performed “the first stanza of the Star-Spangled Banner at least once per week.” [FN1] I say make that all 4 stanzas, especially stanza #3: 1/11

“No refuge could save the hireling and slave/From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.” [FN2] As a weekly rite, singing/performing four stanzas of a relatively short song should not be a factor. Some object: those 3rd stanza lines are taken out of context. [FN3] 2/11

Context of lyrics can be important. [FN4] All 4 stanzas should be sung, to teach students history. Francis Scott Key wrote the anthem for “the land of the free” and was a slaveholder, a quandary that “gnawed at Key’s conscience” [FN5] or maybe not. [FN6] [FN7] It gets worse. 3/11

Key’s brother-in-law was SCOTUS CJ Roger Taney [FN8] who wrote in Dred Scott that African slaves were beings of an inferior order, unfit to associate with the white race, “and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect...” [FN9] 4/11

Alabama could broaden the amendment to discuss the history of the anthem. In the early days of the Civil War, “many Southerners suggested stealing Old Glory and its premier anthem as war booty.” After all, Key’s entire family defected to the States that seceded. [FN10] 5/11

Alabama should not try to censor the national anthem, as they would if only the first stanza is to be sung or performed each week. Another word for an expurgated version of history is “propaganda.” And propaganda is hardly fit to teach kids in public schools. 6/11

Footnotes:
FN1. Ballotpedia, “Alabama voters to decide two constitutional amendments related to the pledge of allegiance and school prayer,” 04/17/26.
FN2. Marc Ferris, “Star-Spangled Banner: The Unlikely Story of America’s National Anthem,” p. 256 (2014). 7/11

FN3. context: “the part of a discourse surrounding a word or group of words that helps to explain the meaning of the word or word group.” The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 1974 ed., p.164. 8/11

FN4. FCC applied this to Eminem’s song “The Rea Slim Shady.” Jesse Prout, “60+ Iconic Songs No Longer Allowed On The Radio (Banned Songs That’ll Never Be Played Again),” MORE, 4/13/26, accessed 4/18/26.
FN5. Ferris at p. 34.
FN6. Key was an opponent of abolition who “believed voluntary deportation the solution to the slave problem.” Fred Kaplan, “Lincoln and the Abolitionists,” p. 7 (2017). 9/11

FN7. He “profited from slaves,” had racist views American citizenship & believed Africans in America “‘a distinct and inferior race of people...’” Christopher Wilson, “Where’s the Debate on Francis Scott Key’s Slave-Holding Legacy?” Smithsonian, 7/1/16, accessed 4/18/26. 10/11

FN8. Taney, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, authored the Court’s opinion in Dred Scott v Sanford v Sanford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857). See, Fred Kaplan, “Lincoln and the Abolitionists,” p. 7 (2017).
FN9. 60 U.S. at 407.
FN10. Ferris at p. 35. 11/11