Civil rights groups push to rename Baltimore bridge because of namesake's links to slavery

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC News

April 10, 2024, 5:44 PM EDT


A consortium of civil rights groups voted unanimously Wednesday to petition the Maryland state government to rename the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which was destroyed by a cargo ship last month, because Key, the author of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” was also a slave owner.

The Caucus of African American Leaders — whose members include the NAACP and the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, among others — is urging Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, and the General Assembly to reconsider the bridge’s name, given that Key was a controversial and oftentimes contradictory figure in the anti-slavery movement. They suggested that it be renamed after Rep. Parren J. Mitchell, the first Black Marylander to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1970.

“He spent a life, his entire life, creating a bridge between the African American community and literally the larger society,” Carl O. Snowden, the convener for the Caucus of African American Leaders, told NBC News. Mitchell died in 2007. The bridge, on the eastern end of Baltimore, collapsed on March 26 after a cargo containment ship crashed into it.

Federal and state leaders are in talks about plans to rebuild the bridge, which had over 11 million vehicles cross over it annually, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority. The caucus is also recommending that the Sen. Frederick Malkus Memorial Bridge — which overlooks the Choptank River in Dorchester County, Maryland — be renamed after Gloria Richardson, the first woman in the U.S. to lead a grassroots civil rights organization outside of the Deep South.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/groups-push-rename-baltimore-bridge-francis-scott-keys-links-slavery-rcna147224

[quakerboy]

1. New bridge, new name

Makes perfect sense to me.

[hlthe2b]

2. I expect major pushback--given its namesake wrote the Star Spangled Banner

Albeit if one reads the complete lyrics our National Anthem is pretty controversial-- to begin with.

But, I'd agree that if it is ever to be renamed, now's the time.

[doc03]

3. Sure, divide the country even more. nt

[SouthBayDem]

5. Whose fault is the division?

Last edited Thu Apr 11, 2024, 10:02 PM - Edit history (1)

It’s odd how agency is never assigned to conservative status quo defenders. See this Lawrence Glickman essay about “white backlash”.

[doc03]

6. He wrote the Star Spangled Banner a half a century before the end of slavery. He didn't

fight in the civil war he was in his 80s. The bridge isn't even pulled out of the water and someone has to
make a controversy already. Next the fucking MAGAs will want to name it after Combover Jesus or Lee Greenwood.

[Abigail_Adams]

7. I'm okay with keeping the name the same for the new bridge. Here's why.

The past had different mores and expectations than today. Papering it over and indulging cancel culture doesn't improve current life for anyone. It was what it was, and as a nation we tried to learn from it. Applying modern standards to premodern times doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

I know there will be disagreement here. So for a related issue I encourage careful reading of what Eisenhower had to say about Robert E. Lee. Don't get me wrong. Lee's cause was indefensible. But that's not what Eisenhower was focusing on. This is worth a read for the assessment of one general by another and for its historical perspective: [link:https://www.civilwarprofiles.com/dwight-d-eisenhower-in-defense-of-robert-e-lee/] Nobody would call Eisenhower unpatriotic or pro-slavery.

Cancel culture's understanding of events is usually skin-deep. Here in Boston, for instance, there was a big brouha over a statue showing Lincoln with a freed slave. A slave HE had freed. Looked at carefully, the statue shows the chains on the former slave broken, and ivy overgrowing the no-longer-used whipping post. He is in the act of rising to his feet, a free man, with an approving Lincoln looking on.

Then the wokesters heard about it. LIncOln iS highEr ThaN tHe BlacK maN1!!1!1 they shouted. They demanded the statue be removed because something something racism, and despite the protests of historians and thinking people, out the statue went. 'Tis a shame that such shallow thought can cause such a thing.

My two cents.

[doc03]

10. Well said I agree. nt

[Elessar Zappa]

11. You know that term

“cancel culture” was coined by right wingers right?

[pimpbot]

4. They haven't even recovered all the bodies yet

The new bridge won't be built for at least another year or two. We have plenty of time to consider the name.

If these groups push hard on this right now, we're gonna have a problem in Maryland. We have a senate seat up for grabs in November. It SHOULD be a lock for a democrat, but Larry Hogan threw his hat into the ring. The same Larry Hogan who won two terms at governor which SHOULD have been a lock for democrats but we ran two very weak candidates and basically tripped over our own feet. In 2018 Ben Jealous lost by 12%, in a heavily democratic state AFTER the Trump disaster of 2016.

The bridge connected two blue collar working class mostly white areas. Francis Scott Key, Ft. McHenry, Star Spangled Banner, the harbor area, are a big part of MD identity. There is going to be A LOT of pushback on renaming the bridge. From a political stand point, this conversation should be had AFTER the November election.

I don't know all the details of Key's past. There should be a conversation about the bridge's new name, but you need to read the room and find a better time to bring this up.

[Abigail_Adams]

8. Interesting point.

Were any naval battles during the revolution fought in/near the harbor?

[malthaussen]

9. If we refused to name anything after slave owners, a lot of Washingtons and Jeffersons would be gone.

And that's just for starters.

-- Mal

[Mrsfiddlegirl]

12. Moving on

Mitchell - Key Bridge. Let's move on. Peace.