Maryland state song, which refers to Lincoln as "tyrant" and urges secession, is repealed

Maryland's state song, which refers to Abraham Lincoln as a "tyrant," urges the state to join Virginia in seceding and refers to the Union as "northern scum," has officially been repealed.

Governor Larry Hogan signed the bill into law this week, calling "Maryland, My Maryland" "a relic of the Confederacy that is clearly outdated and out of touch," he said Tuesday. The signing this week came after ten unsuccessful attempts to repeal it since 1974, three of them in the last three years. In the wake of George Floyd's death, the effort to repeal the song gained new momentum and passed in the House of Delegates and state Senate in March. The song was written as a poem in 1861 by a Baltimore native with confederate sympathies, James Ryder Randall, who was living in Louisiana and was inspired by his outrage at Union soldiers who marched through Baltimore, causing riots on the streets. Played for decades as the unofficial state anthem, it was designated as the official state song in 1939.