This month will be a period of transition in national politics, symbolized by the funeral of Jimmy Carter, the departure of Joe Biden and the inauguration of Donald Trump, which will occur on the same day as the federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. These overlapping events occur in the context of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. As such, it is appropriate to consider what the transition means for Black America, and how its musicians have interpreted the “Star Spangled Banner” during times of stress in our racial politics. It is fitting that the origin of the anthem is connected to the history of Maryland, a former slave state on the border of the North and the South. “The Star-Spangled Banner” was composed by Francis Scott Key, a Maryland attorney and poet, who was inspired by watching soldiers raise the flag over Baltimore’s Fort McHenry after a bombardment by British naval forces during the War of 1812. Composed in 1814, the song was enacted as the national anthem in 1931 during the depths of the Great Depression. Maryland, as I have previously suggested, is arguably the new political capital of Black America. Since 2022, the state’s 30 percent Black population has propelled the historic elections of Gov. Wes Moore, Attorney General Anthony Brown and, last November, Angela Alsobrooks to the Senate. It is the only state where three of the major executive and legislative offices are held by Black politicians. They will oversee the rebuilding of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, demolished in a cargo ship collision last year. One of the first musicians to interpret the “Star Spangled Banner” in a way that displayed a Black consciousness was the piano prodigy known as “Blind Tom.” Born into slavery in Georgia in 1849, Tom was the property of Col. James Bethune, who rented the youth to perform at Confederate social events. He is believed to be the first Black musician to perform at the White House, for President James Buchanan in 1860. After the Civil War, Blind Tom toured the country as a concert performer until his death in 1904. He used dissonance to subtly express the hypocrisy of freedom under Jim Crow, most notably in the composition “Battle of Manassas,” a musical reflection on the Confederate victory in Virginia. It is an aural telling of the 1861 battle through a medley of slave state favorites like “Dixie” and the sound of bugles and cannon fire on piano. Towards the end of the song, rather than glorify the Old South, Tom quoted the “Star Spangled Banner” and ended by shouting as loud as possible the ambiguous coda, “Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!” Concert singer Marian Anderson used the anthem to evoke a political conscience in the midst of World War II. Five years earlier, in 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution, an all-white organization of descendants of Revolutionary War soldiers, prevented Anderson from performing at the segregated Constitution Hall in Washington D.C., sparking a national controversy. In response, the NAACP arranged for Anderson to perform on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. An integrated crowd of 75,000 people attended to hear the contralto sing the patriotic ballad, “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.” In 1943, the DAR was presented with yet another request to allow Anderson to perform at Constitution Hall for a war benefit concert. Anderson demanded that the DAR permit Blacks to attend the show and the organization relented. Blacks comprised half of the sold-out audience, and Anderson closed the historic event by singing the “Star Spangled Banner” as a statement of Black resilience. In 1969, in the midst of the Vietnam War and urban rebellions, Jimi Hendrix composed a dissonant version of the “Star Spangled Banner.” He explored the piercing dynamics of the electric guitar to implant a radical interpretation of the anthem at the close of the Woodstock festival, helping to define the spirit of the Black Power and counterculture movements. In 1983, when Congress passed the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., soul singer Marvin Gaye performed a rendition that stands out in my memory. The occasion was the NBA All-Star Game at the Forum in California, and was viewed by millions. Gaye rearranged the song into a multi-syllabic slow jam that expressed Black urban sensuality and captured the imagination of the audience. By the end, the crowd shouted affirmations and clapped in time like a revival meeting — but the unique interpretation was criticized as unpatriotic by some conservatives. In 1991, as the country went to war against Iraq, Whitney Houston gave one of the more memorable anthem performances at Super Bowl XXV in Florida. Because of the war, Houston needed to be cautious to avoid offending an audience with a heightened sense of patriotism — and she was backed by a military band that controlled the music. Nonetheless, she managed to evoke a distinct Black style through a virtuoso delivery as dramatic as the jets that soared overhead in a visual coda. In the years since, Black musicians have built on the creative interpretations of the early pioneers. After the tragedy of 9/11, Mariah Carey performed a majestic rendition backed by the Boston Pops Orchestra at Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans in 2002. Stevie Wonder performed the anthem at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Michigan before game three of the 2005 NBA finals. He decided to eschew the lyrics in favor of playing his signature harmonica to inject a Black sensibility into the anthem. And, after Barack Obama took office in 2009, Jennifer Hudson gave a crescendo performance at Super Bowl XLIII in Florida. No doubt people can think of other outstanding renditions beyond this cursory survey. All of which is to say that as the country embarks on a new period of political transition, Black cultural creators may once again be called upon to infuse a racial consciousness into the symbols of America. Roger House is professor emeritus of American Studies at Emerson College and the author of “Blue Smoke: The Recorded Journey of Big Bill Broonzy” and “South End Shout: Boston’s Forgotten Music Scene in the Jazz Age.” His forthcoming book is “Five Hundred Years of Black Self Governance: A Call to Conscience.”