On the heels of the 200th anniversary of the creation of “The Star Spangled Banner,” the Fayette County Board of Commissioners will give special attention to the national anthem at Thursday night’s regular meeting.
Three representatives from McIntosh High School — Jackie Gray, Jennifer Kodak and TaNia Nash – will sing “The Star Spangled Banner” tomorrow night at the Board of Commissioners meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. at the county’s administrative complex, 140 Stonewall Avenue in Fayetteville.
One of the most important poems in American history was written Sept. 13, 1814, by Francis Scott Key and originally titled “Defense of Fort M’Henry.” On a mission to retrieve Dr. Williams Beanes, Key was detained on a British ship in the Chesapeake Bay during an attack on Fort McHenry.
After an entire night of fighting, the image of the American flag still standing the next morning inspired Key to write his timeless piece.
In a short time the poem gained extraordinary popularity and was sung to the tune of composer John Stafford Smith’s “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The U.S. Navy adopted “The Star Spangled Banner” later in the 1800s and it was officially adopted by Congress as the national anthem in 1931.
While there have been petitions to change the national anthem because of the perceived difficulty in singing it, recent data suggests it is as popular as ever.
A 2012 Rasmussen Reports survey noted that 82 percent of American adults oppose changing the national anthem.
