The California NAACP is urging "The Star-Spangled Banner" be removed as the national anthem, according to the Sacramento Bee.
The NFL has been embroiled in a national controversy regarding players kneeling for the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before games.
President Donald Trump has weighed in multiple times condemning players as being disrespectful for kneeling for the anthem.
But the California NAACP has upped the pressure by urging Congress to remove the song as the national anthem. The group called the song "one of the most racist, pro-slavery, anti-black songs in the American lexicon."
The song has a rarely heard third verse that includes the passage:
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave
Historians have different interpretations for what the verse means. The song was written during the War of 1812 by Francis Scott Key, a slave owner. The song was written on Sept. 13, 1814 and adopted by Congress as the national anthem in 1931, according to history.com.
Free agent NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick began a protest movement against racism in the country by kneeling during the anthem before games. The movement grew to involve dozens of NFL players.
California NAACP President Alice Huffman has asked for the nation to replace the song with one that is not "another song that disenfranchises part of the American population," according to the Sacramento Bee.
