Francis Scott Key was a slave owner with varied beliefs. The National Anthem’s writer has a questionable line in the third stanza that most have pinned as racist, "No refuge could save the hireling and slave, From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave.” He embodied hypocrisy; He criticized slavery but owned slaves. He freed his own six slaves but represented slave owners seeking the return of runaway slaves. He was a founding member of an organization, American Colonization Society, made up of slave owners, that deported freed slaves to West Africa although they were born in America. And towards their journey, they faced brutal conditions and unspeakable cruelty. This Society was to preserve slavery rather than eliminate it. However, despite his anti-slavery position, Key expressed white supremacist points of view. During the War of 1812, after seeing the Second Corps of the Colonial Marines—a British military corps composed of fugitive slaves from the U.S.—-fight against American soldiers, Key said that Black people were "a distinct and inferior race of people, which experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts the community."

This is the history that is never told to us; rather it is subliminal and fed to children awhile romanticized. If we are to move forward we must release the invisible chains on the necks of our future generation. As subtle as it is, we must shed the pain of our past completely. Names mean something to someone no matter where they came from. An institution that is named after figures causes children to expand their natural curiosity. Who is this person that my school is named after? What did they do for them to be so important? Imagine the feeling Black children feel when they are faced with the reality that they are investing themselves and the enrichment of their education in a school that is named after someone who did not see them or their ancestors as human beings. How can you expect children to have pride in a person who enslaved and diluted their people to nothing more than beasts of burdens? How can you expect Black children to have pride in the name and institution of someone who aided in the genocide, displacement, and enslavement of their people?

Maryland is home to some of the greatest African American people in history, such as Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas, Matthew Henson, Thurgood Marshall, William C. Goodridge, Crystal Bird Fauset, Frances Harper, Benjamin Banneker, etc... It is not hard to showcase and celebrate African Americans instead of slave owners and White Supremacists.

Fredrick Douglass’ journey is one of personal triumph and national prominence. He is the embodiment of perseverance, intellect, and the all-around unending desire for freedom and justice. Fredrick Douglas was born into slavery in this state of Maryland and escaped to freedom when he was 20 years old. In the north, he joined the abolitionist movement and was recognizable as a powerful speaker and writer at a time when African Americans were deemed mentally and morally inferior. There is no Civil Rights history for African Americans without the mentioning of Fredrick Douglass. He was a prominent leader in the Abolition Movement, his memoir fueled the abolitionist movement in America, he was responsible for convincing African Americans to fight the confederacy in The Civil War, he advocated for women’s s suffrage, he played a major role towards the right for African Americans to vote, he was the first African American to be appointed a US Marshall, he was the first African American nominated for Vice President and he has so much more accomplishments for not only the emancipation and progression of African Americans, but towards Human Rights itself.

We petition The Montgomery County Board of Education to change the name of Francis Scott Key Middle School to Fredrick Douglas Middle school and honor the legacy of one of the greatest African American minds and freedom fighters in history that we are so lucky to claim in this state.

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.” -  Frederick Douglass