Tucker Carlson debated a writer from Alternet DC who said the “Star-Spangled Banner’s” designation as our national anthem has its roots in neo-Confederate circles.
One day before the 203rd anniversary of Francis Scott Key penning the song while onboard a ship during the Battle of Baltimore, Key’s monument in the Charm City was defaced with the term “racist anthem.”
Jefferson Morley told Carlson that for nearly a decade in the 1920s, neo-Confederate groups petitioned – ultimately successfully – to have Key’s tune made our official anthem.
That goal finally came to pass in 1931.
Carlson said the anthem itself is not racist, and the Confederacy came to exist decades after Key took that famous glance across the Patapsco River.
The only other contributor to Key’s work was 18th Century English church organist John Stafford Smith, whose accompaniment to a drinking song was added to Key’s poem to create the anthem known today.
“People who wanted to make it the national anthem considered it a victory for the Confederate cause,” Morley said. “We should know the real history of the song.”
Carlson disagreed saying he did not care why it became the national anthem, because the song itself was patriotic and only co-opted by racist factions a century later.
Morley added that it is timely to understand the roots of the anthem’s establishment because President Trump appeared to tacitly accept the existence of white supremacy last month.
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