Missouri Lawmaker Raises Fist In Pledge Of Allegiance Protest

ST. LOUIS, MO — Bruce Franks Jr., a Missouri Democratic lawmaker representing St. Louis, stood and raised his hand in a fist during the Pledge of Allegiance Wednesday at the opening of the Missouri legislature's 2018 session. Before being elected to the office, Franks was best known for his activism in the Black Lives Matter movement and for his rap music. A profile in the Post-Dispatch recently chronicled his path from one of St. Louis' roughest neighborhoods to the state house.

Franks, who is black, told The Associated Press he prefers "to pledge allegiance to the people," rather than to the flag. He's not alone. In the closing chapter of his 1995 book, "The Demon-Haunted World," popular astronomer Carl Sagan wrote:

Part of the duty of citizenship is not to be intimidated into conformity. I wish that the oath of citizenship taken by recent immigrants and the pledge that students routinely recite included something like, "I promise to question everything my leaders tell me. I promise to use my critical faculties. I promise to develop my independence of thought. I promise to educate myself so I can make my own judgments." I also wish the Pledge of Allegiance were directed at the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as it is when the President takes his oath of office, rather than to the flag and the nation.

The Pledge of Allegiance was composed by a Christian Socialist minister, Francis Bellamy, in 1892 and formally adopted by Congress in 1942. The words "under God" were added 12 years later, largely in response to the Soviet Union's state-sanctioned atheism.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Photo: Missouri State Representative Bruce Franks Jr. stands before police in riot gear as protesters demonstrate following the acquittal of former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley for murder last year in the shooting death of motorist Anthony Lamar Smith. (Michael B. Thomas/News/Getty Images)