The University of Houston’s Gerald Horne believes that collective America does not acknowledge the darkest moments of its history — because we still recite the Pledge of Allegiance and sing the National Anthem.
A professor of history and African-American Studies, Horne says the Pledge is the post-Civil War “glue” that served to bind together this “artificially-constructed former slaveholders’ republic.”
Formally adopted during World War II, Horne contends the Pledge again played into the need for national unity, “not least because a substantial percentage of the citizenry, particularly those of African descent, were subjected to routine atrocities.”
He adds that “it was felt that [blacks] would not necessarily be enthusiastic about shedding their blood and making the ultimate sacrifice for this so-called Republic.”
The professor also isn’t happy with The Star-Spangled Banner.
Well, you should look at the third stanza of the Star-Spangled Banner, which is sung routinely, as you know, at sporting events, at every major, perhaps even minor, event at this country. The third stanza, the lyrics, devised by Francis Scott Key of Maryland–who, by the way, was a slaveowner, and by the way, in 1835 helped to incite a pogrom against people of African descent, particularly slaves, in the Washington, D.C.-Baltimore area–in the third stanza, he denounces the black population of the United States.
And one of the reasons he…