The unexpected connection between slavery, NFL protests and the national anthem - CNN
▻http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/29/sport/colin-kaepernick-flag-protest-has-history-trnd/index.html
“I am not looking for approval,” he said at the time. “I have to stand up for people that are oppressed.”
For some black NFL stars, like Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch and Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins, taking a knee, sitting or standing with a fist raised has become a common pre-game practice in the ensuing year. Slowly, but very visibly, others have joined in.
Jenkins’ teammate, Chris Long, who is white, put his arm around Jenkins in solidarity as Jenkins raised his fist high before a mid-August preseason game. It is worth noting that Long, who is vocal about his political views, played college ball in Charlottesville, at the University of Virginia.
“I think it’s a good time for people who look like me to be here for people fighting for equality,” Long said after the game.
Whether these players know it, and whether they kneel with the fact in mind, the connection between race and the national anthem has a painful yet little-known root.
The national anthem’s forgotten lyrics
“The Star-Spangled Banner” was written by Francis Scott Key in 1814 about the American victory at the Battle of Fort McHenry. We only sing the first verse, but Key penned three more. This is the third verse:
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
The mere mention of “slave” is not entirely remarkable; slavery was alive and well in the United States in 1814. Key himself owned slaves, was an anti-abolitionist and once called his African brethren "a dis