Activists Suggest that America Replace the “Star Spangled Banner” with John Lennon’s “Imagine” as Nat’l Anthem

By: Fern Sidman

It seems that the counter culturalists have now revved up their anti-American agenda but this time it takes a way different form than calling for the toppling of monuments and statues that offend certain folks.

While some athletes and other celebrities have decided that they will “take a knee” while the national anthem is played at various events, now other activists, historians and journalists have actually suggested that the Star Spangled Banner be permanently replaced. The reason, you ask? Because they claim that the author of the iconic anthem, Francis Scott Key was a slave owner. And therefore, the further assert, such an anthem will not resonate with black Americans and other minorities.

According to a report in the UK Daily Mail, these agenda driven “activists” want the national anthem to be replaced with the song “Imagine” by the late British pop star, John Lennon.

The first suggestion of such a change was made by historian Daniel E. Walker and activist/journalist Kevin Powell, as was reported by the Daily Mail. The two proffered this idea to Yahoo Music Editor Lyndsey Parker in an article that the latter wrote titled, ‘Why it Might be Time to Finally Replace The Star-Spangled Banner with a New National Anthem.’    

 

They assert that Francis Scott Key was not only a white man who owned slaves but made “overtly racist remarks” according to the Daily Mail report.

 

The report went on to say that “it is no longer appropriate that lyrics he wrote should still be the national anthem given the ongoing cultural reckoning and recognizing of systemic racism in America.”

 

Powell claims that Lennon’s song, “Imagine” would be a suitable replacement for the 206 year old song that was written during the Battle of Fort McHenry in Baltimore because it is the ‘most beautiful, unifying, all-people, all-backgrounds-together kind of song you could have,’ as was reported by the Daily Mail. The Star Spangled Banner became the official American national anthem in 1931.

 

The report also indicated that the suggestion has caused a firestorm of sorts among Twitter users who claim that this is yet another way that the Black Lives Matter movement is trying to ‘erase American history.”

 

In the interview, Walker said: “The 53-year old in me says that you can’t change things that have existed forever. But then there are young people who say that America needs to live up to its real creed. And so, I do side with the people who say that we should rethink this as the national anthem because this is about the deep seated legacy of slavery and white supremacy in America, where we do things over and over and over again that are a slap in the face of people of color and women.”

 

Powell said in the interview that Francis Scott Key was born into a wealthy family of slave owners in Maryland. He added that a well-to-do lawyer who had close associations with Andrew Jackson, who he claims was the Donald Trump of his time and that there was a lot of hate, violence and division.

 

He also claimed that during the time whem Key practiced law, he prosecuted abolitionists, both white and black who staunchly opposed the concept of slavery.