'My Old Kentucky Home' will play for 101st time at derby, here’s why state song about slavery is controversial
'My Old Kentucky Home' written by Stephen Foster, traditionally has been performed pre-race by the University of Louisville’s marching band. It will yet again be played before the horse race on Saturday, May 1, 2021, despite opposition from the public and calls for putting an end to the musical tradition because of its controversial wording about Black people which was scrubbed out in 1986 by the Kentucky Legislature.
Known as the home of the Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs racetrack hosted the races last year on Labor Day weekend. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a "thoughtfully and appropriately modified" version of the song was performed on the bugle without any lyrics. A moment of silence was observed for Breonna Taylor, who was shot in her own bed by cops, before the song was played.
The song is reportedly going to be played yet again this year and there's still no word from Churchill Downs regarding any changes to the version this year. More than 45,000 people are expected to be present to witness the historic races and while it's unclear if the lyrics of the state song will be displayed on a large screen and if there will be any changes to it, here are some facts about the song's history and why it is controversial.
Complicated history of 'My Old Kentucky Home'
Playing the song before the Kentucky Derby is a tradition that dates back to 1921 and this year will mark the 101st time for the Stephen Foster song to be played as the annual sporting event commences. Foster is known as the "father of American music" and made his living selling sheet music in the days before records and radio. The song was written and is about the antebellum South in 1853 and originally had a highly offensive racial term included in the lyrics which was scrubbed in 1986 by the Kentucky legislature.
The racial term has become a part of the permanent record and the memory of all those who heard and read the original. There is some evidence to suggest Foster wrote it as a tribute to the hardships of slavery. One of the most famous abolitionists in US history, Frederick Douglas, in his 1855 autobiography 'My Bondage and My Freedom' wrote that the state song awakens "the sympathies for the slave, in which anti-slavery principles take root, grow and flourish.”
Historians seem to agree that the song originally titled 'My Old Kentucky Home, Goodnight' was written as an anti-slavery track after Foster read Harrier Beecher Stowe's famous novel 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' and follows the same story arc as Stowe's title character. The opening scene in the novel features a slave trader explaining that Black people don't have the same tender emotions as White people, justifying the selling of their children for profit.
'My Old Kentucky Home' admonishes that racist thinking. The song highlights the humanity and close family ties of the enslaved population at a time when African Americans were routinely dehumanized and ridiculed. Apart from Douglass, a Black singer, actor, and political activist of the mid-20th century, Paul Robeson delivered a rendition of the song including the racial slur, painfully highlighting Foster's meaning.
The song is sung every year by affluent white crowds at Churchill Downs, including the verse where Foster was describing a slave trader coming to steal away a family member.
The young folks roll on the little cabin floor,
All merry, all happy, and bright.
By and by hard times comes a-knocking at the door,
Then my old Kentucky home, good night.
The day goes by like a shadow o'er the heart,
With sorrow where all was delight.
The time has come when the [expletive] have to part,
Then my old Kentucky home, good night.
The singer-songwriter also speaks of being sold down the river to the canebrakes and later on a verse says that freedom shall come to the enslaved in death far from home.
The head must bow and the back will have to bend,
Wherever the [expletive] may go.
A few more days and the trouble all will end,
In the field where the sugar-canes grow.
A few more days for to tote the weary load,
No matter, ’twill never be light;
A few more days till we totter on the road,
Then my old Kentucky home, goodnight.
The song became an anthem for Kentucky tourism with 10,000 copies of the sheet music distributed at the St Louis World’s Fair in 1904 and popular recordings included the usage of the slur. This included a performance by classical soprano Alma Gluck, and Al Jonson who often performed in blackface and substituted the slur with "children" and "friends" in his renditions.
The song was adopted by the Kentucky legislature in 1928 as 'My Old Kentucky Home' with its original lyrics as the state song. The resolution was passed by White legislators stating the song had "immortalized Kentucky throughout the civilized world." The popularity of the song heightened across the country and was recorded by musicians including Judy Garland and Bing Crosby who retained the slur but omitted the lines about death in the sugarcane fields.