A consortium of civil rights groups voted unanimously Wednesday to petition the Maryland state government to rename the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which was destroyed by a cargo ship last month, because Key, the author of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” was also a slave owner.
The Caucus of African American Leaders — whose members include the NAACP and the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, among others — is urging Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, and the General Assembly to reconsider the bridge’s name, given that Key was a controversial and oftentimes contradictory figure in the anti-slavery movement. They suggested that it be renamed after Rep. Parren J. Mitchell, the first Black Marylander to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1970.
“He spent a life, his entire life, creating a bridge between the African American community and literally the larger society,” Carl O. Snowden, the convener for the Caucus of African American Leaders, told NBC News. Mitchell died in 2007.
The bridge, on the eastern end of Baltimore, collapsed on March 26 after a cargo containment ship crashed into it. Federal and state leaders are in talks about plans to rebuild the bridge, which had over 11 million vehicles cross over it annually, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority.
The caucus is also recommending that the Sen. Frederick Malkus Memorial Bridge — which overlooks the Choptank River in Dorchester County, Maryland — be renamed after Gloria Richardson, the first woman in the U.S. to lead a grassroots civil rights organization outside of the Deep South.
The caucus plans to share its recommendation with Moore this week, Snowden said Wednesday. They also plan to discuss the renaming in more detail at their quarterly meeting with the governor. Additionally, the caucus is urging the governor and state government to create a memorial for the six Latino workers who were killed in the bridge collapse, Snowden said.
In 1987, Gov. Harry R. Hughes, a…
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