“Star-Spangled Banner” writer had complex history on race, The Baltimore Sun. While many view the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before sporting events as an important patriotic ritual, over the years some athletes have chosen to protest enduring racial injustices in American society by turning their backs on the flag, refusing to stand or taking a knee while the national anthem is performed. The practice soon spread across major league baseball, and into other sports, and eventually became a widely accepted pregame tradition. During the seventh-inning stretch, the military band on hand struck up “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and in a moving spectacle, players and fans alike fell silent and saluted the flag. In addition to the ongoing toll of World War I, a cloud of violence hung over Chicago’s Comiskey Park, as a bomb had torn apart the Chicago Federal Building just the day before. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed an executive order designating it “the national anthem of the United States.” But during and immediately after the Civil War, Key’s song gained a deeper meaning, as the American flag became an increasingly powerful symbol of national unity.īy the 1890s, the U.S military had adopted the song for ceremonial purposes, playing it to accompany the raising and lowering of the colors. Growing Popularity of “The Star-Spangled Banner”Īt first, “The Star-Spangled Banner” trailed “Yankee Doodle” and “Hail Columbia” in popularity among patriotic 19th-century tunes. Instead, Key became a leader of the colonization movement, which advocated the relocation of black slaves to Africa and eventually resulted in the modern nation of Liberia. He did speak out against the cruelties of the institution of slavery, but did not see abolition as the solution. attorney argued several prominent cases against the abolitionist movement. Though his celebrated anthem proclaimed the United States “the land of the free,” Key was in fact a slaveholder from an old Maryland plantation family, and as a U.S. He composed other verses over the course of his life, but none received anywhere close to the recognition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” After contracting pleurisy, Key died in 1843 at the age of 63. sailors into the Royal Navy and standing in the way of westward expansion led the United States to declare war in June 1812. Simmering anger at Britain for interfering in American trade, impressing U.S. soldiers-who were under bombardment from British naval forces during the War of 1812-raise a large American flag over Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland. The anthem’s history began the morning of September 14, 1814, when an attorney and amateur poet named Francis Scott Key watched U.S. By the time the song officially became the country’s anthem in 1931, it had been one of America’s most popular patriotic tunes for more than a century. “The Star-Spangled Banner” is the national anthem of the United States. History of the National Anthem at Sporting Events.Growing Popularity of “The Star-Spangled Banner”.
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