Thread by @JoyAnnReid

It’s just one of the delicious ironies of life that the Star Spangled Banner, which became the National Anthem because one of our most white nationalist presidents liked his daughter’s recorded version, commemorates the war of 1812 that produced the first sacking of the Capitol.

https://twitter.com/jemelehill/status/1411420122216951817

And the people screeching the loudest against the “Black National Anthem” — Lift Evry Voice And Sing — written first as a poem in 1900 to commemorate Abe Lincoln’s birthday, probably are cool with the 1/6 Capitol Siege, and Lincoln wouldn’t even recognize them as Republicans.

Here’s a good history of the National Anthem (which has only been that since Congress ok’d it in 1931, affirming Woodrow Wilson’s 1916 executive order. Of course, the Daughters of the Confederacy make their usual appearance... washingtonpost.com/history/2020/1…

Here’s the Wilson-related history: history.com/this-day-in-hi….

And here’s Wilson’s daughter Margaret’s recording, which was sold as as souvenir record at a Panama world exhibit in 1915…

Of course, Whitney’s version was better… arguably the best of all time (with Marvin Gaye and Jimi Hendrix not far behind…)

Luckily she didn’t have to sing the third stanza… not sure even Whitney could have fixed that…

My favorite freaked out repliers are the ones who just now found out there was a Black National Anthem. Nobody tell them about We Shall Overcome or Strange Fruit. They might lose their minds…