https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/m...75bcc05a424a6cb1a9873c07fa9bb1&ei=48#comments
nov 27 2023 Montgomery County Public Schools (Maryland) is looking to rename schools named after slave owners, and Francis Scott Key Middle School could be the next one up for debate.
Francis Scott Key, a Maryland native, was a poet and lawyer best know for writing the national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner.
In 2019, Montgomery County Public Schools - the state's largest school district - launched a review that found six schools in the county were named after slave owners.
Key served in the War of 1812 and wrote The Star Spangled Banner witnessing the twenty-five hour bombardment of Fort McHenry.
The National Park Service reported that Francis Scott Key had a conflicted relationship with slavery and as an attorney believed 'by the law of nature all men are free. The presumption that even Black men and Africans are slaves is not a universal presumption.'
However, his family owned slaves at the time of his birth and it is believed Key purchased his first enslaved person around 1800 and by 1820 he owned six enslaved people.
Key has many other memorials in his honor including the Key Bridge connecting Washington, D.C. to Virginia, the Francis Scott Key Monument in Baltimore and several other schools across the country.
