Maryland’s largest school district wants to rename Francis Scott Key Middle School because Key, a Maryland native, owned slaves.
Remembered as the author of the text for “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Key is now memorialized in many ways: the Francis Scott Key Monument in Baltimore, the Key Bridge connecting Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood to Virginia, and elementary, middle, and high schools in Maryland, Texas, California, Virginia, and D.C. There’s also the Francis Scott Key Mall in Maryland, the USS Francis Scott Key (the now-decommissioned Navy submarine), an auditorium at St. John’s College (Key’s alma mater), and halls at the University of Maryland, College Park, and George Washington University.
But Key wasn’t safe from Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), which began a countywide review of school names in February. (Given the district’s several lawsuits, increased school crime, and bumbling proficiency rates, this was a strange time to embark on another social-justice-fueled initiative.) This winter, MCPS will debate renaming Key and other schools that were named after slave owners.
According to MoCo 360, the review was conducted by MCPS staff members, county historians, and student researchers from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The schools named after slave owners are Montgomery Blair High School (Blair was an anti-slavery lawyer who represented Dred Scott), Col. Zadok Magruder High School (Magruder was one of the county’s first commissioners), Richard Montgomery High School (Montgomery was the first American general killed in the Revolutionary War), John Poole Middle School (Poole founded Poolesville, Md.), and Thomas S. Wootton High School (Wootton introduced the legislation that established Montgomery County at the 1776 Maryland Constitutional Convention).
MCPS lays out the criteria for school naming in its district guidelines: A namesake must be deceased and must have made a “demonstrated contribution” to the community, county, state, or nation. The board of education is to give “persons who represent the diversity of Montgomery County and/or prompted advancements in equity” strong consideration.
Key penned the song the day after the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. When he saw an American flag raised triumphantly over Fort McHenry after the British bombardment, Key wrote the poem that became the words of the national anthem. Key did own slaves, and freed several of them. He also opposed the slave trade and as an attorney helped black Marylanders regain freedom.
“By the law of nature all men are free,” he once said. “The presumption that even black men and Africans are slaves is not a universal presumption.”
Renaming buildings or entire schools requires a dangerous erasure of history. Taxpayers also foot the bill for projects that require a rebranding or renaming, including the fee charged by Coaction Collective, the consulting firm MCPS hired to conduct community surveys on the issue.
“Coaction Collective (which we affectionately call CoCo for short) honors the intersection of our identities and elevates our intrinsic humanity, especially during complex and highly politicized times,” Coaction Collective’s website reads. “We believe liberation relies on community.”
Montgomery County Considers Renaming Francis Scott Key Middle School
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27.11.2023
Maryland’s largest school district wants to rename Francis Scott Key Middle School because Key, a Maryland native, owned slaves.
Remembered as the author of the text for “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Key is now memorialized in many ways: the Francis Scott Key Monument in Baltimore, the Key Bridge connecting Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood to Virginia, and elementary, middle, and high schools in Maryland, Texas, California, Virginia, and D.C. There’s also the Francis Scott Key Mall in Maryland, the USS Francis Scott Key (the now-decommissioned Navy submarine), an auditorium at St. John’s College (Key’s alma mater), and halls at the University of Maryland, College Park, and George Washington University.
But Key wasn’t safe from Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), which began a countywide review of school names in........
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