I think it should be removed. Everyone wants to discard the other verses in the national anthem that is clearly racist. I'm sorry, but I cannot support the national anthem any longer. Verse 3 illustrates the celebration of slavery and to turn the other eye because you are not a person of color is called racism. Imagine a song, that we are to represent, celebrating white people as slaves. I put my hand over my heart during the national anthem, but when I did my research, I can't support it. I respect the flag, but not the national anthem because it is not an anthem that all can be proud of, especially the people of color. Taking a kneel to support the flag is appropriate in my view.
Verse 3
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
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,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave
Francis Scott Key, the wealthy American lawyer who wrote "The Star Spangled Banner" in the wake of the Battle of Fort McHenry on 14 September 1814, was a slaveholder who
believed blacks to be "a distinct and inferior race of people, which all experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts a community." It goes without saying that Key did not have the enslaved black population of America in mind when he penned the words "land of the free." It would be logical to assume, as well, that he might have harbored a special resentment toward African Americans who fought against the United States on behalf of the King.
Do your research and I can't see how anyone could support the slaveholder's anthem to represent the United States of America.