Woke America eyes booting Francis Scott Key’s name from rebuilt Baltimore bridge

 Replacing the Francis Scott Key Bridge will take years, billions of dollars and probably come with an entirely new name.

While much of the span remains submerged in the Patapsco River in Baltimore, there are already murmurs about naming the future bridge after someone other than Key, who wrote America’s national anthem and was a slave owner.

“President Joe Biden has pledged that the bridge will be rebuilt. Absolutely. Do that. But when it’s rebuilt, let’s rename it, too,” journalist Wayne Washington wrote in The Root, a Black news media site.

The bridge was named after Key in part because of its location.

According to the Maryland Preservation, historians believe the bridge stood within 100 yards of where Key was detained on the British flagship HMS Tonnant during the War of 1812, and where he wrote the poem that later became the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

But Key’s reputation has taken a hit in recent years along with other historical figures who owned slaves. Key also represented slaveholders in court and was a proponent of racist views...more