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A painting depicting Francis Scott Key aboard the British ship HMS Tonnant viewing Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore on Sept. 14, 1814. Ed Vebell/Getty Images

Francis Scott Key: One of the anti-slavery movement’s great villains

Few people embody the contradictions of U.S. history like the author of the Star Spangled Banner, someone who denounced slavery as a moral wrong but rejected racial equality.
Boxer Jack Johnson was relentlessly reprimanded for his arrogance and opulent lifestyle. But what was the criticism really about? Václav Soukup/flickr

The oppressive seeds of the Colin Kaepernick backlash

The controversy over Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the National Anthem isn’t a watershed moment. It’s only the latest chapter in a long history of people trying to control how black people behave.

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