Slavery and the National Anthem

"I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag. I know that I am a black man in a
white world."

That was not said by Colin Kaepernick, but Jackie Robinson, beloved baseball pioneer and civil
rights activist. After Kaepernick was spotted sitting during the anthem in the NFL preseason
game, the struggling quarterback said he would not stand "to show pride in a flag for a country
that oppresses black people and people of color."

It's hard not to notice that Robinson and Kaepernick are almost perfectly aligned.

The national anthem's forgotten lyrics

"The Star-Spangled Banner" was written by Francis Scott Key in 1814 about an American war
victory. We only sing the first verse, but at one point in the song, Key writes:

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,

The mere mention of "slave" is not surprising; slavery was alive and well in the United States in
1814. Key owned slaves and once called Africans "a distinct and inferior race of people."

Some people think that these lyrics showed that Francis Scott Key was taking pleasure in the
deaths of freed black slaves who had decided to fight with the British against the United States.

In order to increase their numbers of soldiers, British forces offered slaves their freedom if they
would join their side during the war. These black recruits formed the Colonial Marines, and were
looked down upon by people like Key who saw their actions as treason.

Since the song became our country's national anthem in 1931, many people have debated using
it for many different reasons. Some people have said that songs like "God Bless America" and
"America the Beautiful" would be better alternatives.

Athletes and the American ritual

The American ritual of the national anthem has always been a key part of both patriotism and
protest. Around the same time Jackie Robinson was using his baseball achievements to advance
civil rights causes, two American Olympic runners, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, raised their
fists in a black power salute during a medal ceremony at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City as the
anthem was playing.

The result was iconic. The reaction was ugly. Racial slurs were hurled at the pair and an article in
Time called it a "public display of petulance."