Is Maryland Ready To Rid 'Northern Scum' From State Song?

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

"Maryland, My Maryland," was written in 1861 by James Ryder Randall. It was adopted as the state song in 1939.

Previous attempts to change or replace it have failed. Now, some say recent events involving Confederate statues may help change the language in what was originally a poem that doubled as a call to arms.

In August, just days after violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, Maryland officials removed a statue of Roger Taney from the statehouse grounds. He 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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