(WSVN) - California’s NAACP is encouraging lawmakers to support the removal of “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem.
The group called the song “one of the most racist, pro-slavery, anti-black songs in the American lexicon,” the Sacramento Bee reported Tuesday. Instead, the group says Congress should adopt a new national anthem that is not “another song that disenfranchises part of the American population.”
The move comes amid the controversy surrounding NFL players who kneel for the anthem. President Trump has called for team owners to fire players who choose to kneel.
Fox News reports the NAACP’s California chapter last week sent out two resolutions following passage at their state conference in October.
One resolution called for the removal of the anthem, while the other is part of the group’s effort to get former quarterback Colin Kaepernick back to playing on a team.
Kaepernick was the first NFL player to kneel during the anthem.
“We owe a lot of it to Kaepernick,” California NAACP President Alice Huffman told The Sacramento Bee. “I think all this controversy about the knee will go away once the song is removed.”
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