Emancipated people claimed the national anthem before white people did

Evidence

The Colonel has the flag in the silence. He slowly waves it, thinking this is the first time it may hold true meaning for them. An elderly black voice begins to sing, My Country, ’tis of thee…A few black women add their voices. Suddenly, many. The Colonel quiets the white people so that only black people are singing. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 752

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s core case-study interest: origin stories and who gets to define the nation’s symbols; the freed people re-dating the flag’s real meaning prefigures the 1619 reframing argument.
• SEED: An essay angle: the moment Black Americans first sang the anthem as a genuine claim on the nation prefigures every later dispute over patriotism and protest.