Is Maryland ready to rid 'Northern scum' from state song?

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland lawmakers who support changing the official state song think the time is right to finally wipe away "Northern scum" and other sensitive pre-Civil War phrases.

"Maryland, My Maryland," set to the traditional seasonal tune of "O,Tannenbaum," was written in 1861 by James Ryder Randall and adopted as the state song in 1939.

Previous attempts to change it have stalled, partly because lawmakers were reluctant to tinker with history. Now, some say recent events involving Confederate statues may help to change the language in what was originally a poem that doubled as a call to arms.

In August, several days after violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, Maryland officials removed from the statehouse grounds a statue of Roger Taney. Taney was the U.S. Supreme Court justice who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery and denied citizenship to African-Americans.

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