Churchill Downs Racecourse will continue its tradition of playing “My Old Kentucky Home” in the early Kentucky Derby, despite criticism of the song about American slavery.
But the performance of the melody, which is also a Kentucky song, will be different on Saturday than in previous years, Churchill Downs said.
“Usually at this point, fans sing along. This year it will only be instrumental and will be preceded by a moment of silence and reflection, ”Tonya Abeln, vice president of public affairs at the Churchill Downs Foundation, told NBC News. …
The Kentucky Derby, one of the most popular sporting events in the United States with an average of 15 million TV viewers each year, takes place on Saturday without a fan presence after it was postponed in March due to coronavirus pandemic… (NBC televises Derby every year.)
The song will be played by bugler Steve Battleman, not the regular University of Louisville marching band.
Like a hippodrome tweeted friday“The 100-year tradition of singing the Kentucky State Song has been carefully and appropriately modified and will be preceded by a moment of silence and reflection.”
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My Old Kentucky Home was written by Pennsylvania native Stephen Foster in the 1850s.
His original lyrics tell a first-person story about an enslaved man who was sold downriver from Kentucky to work hard ata field where sugar canes grow… »Later versions tell the same story from a third person.
In accordance with Smithsonian magazine, the song, as Foster wrote, “is actually the cry of an enslaved man who has been forcibly separated from his family and his painful desire to return to the hut with his wife and children.”
“It presents a beautiful, peaceful and positive picture of slavery in Kentucky,” says historian Emily Bingham. said NBC affiliate WAVE in Louisville. “But then he brings this man, who hums about Kentucky, to an environment where he will meet death without ever being reunited” with his family.
According to Bingham, later generations began to associate the song with plantation culture and the Negro minstrel show.
As his original anti-slavery significance became less apparent over the years, criticism of his work grew, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
The second line of the song, which contained racial slurs repeated over and over during the tune, was changed in the 1980s after Karl Hines, the first African American state legislature serving in Louisville’s 43rd arrondissement, introduced a resolution that replaced the insult with the word “people”.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky, told reporters Friday that he called President Churchill Downs “and told them to play My Old Kentucky Home.”
“This is a song that dates back to the pre-civil war period. It used to have some kind of language that I think could be seen as insensitive to race. That was ruled out 30 or 40 years ago, ”McConnell said. “It’s a big part of our culture and tradition, and it’s a must to play the Kentucky Derby.”
Louisville poet and activist Hannah Drake asked Churchill Downs about the song in an open letter this week.
Why is my old house in Kentucky, the song about a slave being sold south, is still sung in the Kentucky Derby? … Breonna Taylor and those fighting for justice in this city deserve more from this iconic institution, ”she wrote, referring to 26-year-old emergency care technician Black, who was fatally wounded by Louisville police at her home on March 13th.
Thousands of demonstrators Calls for justice for Taylor are expected to gather outside the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, replacing the traditional crowd of dapper dandies and women in fancy hats. who will be absent from the stands due to the pandemic.
