Once again, the Kentucky Festival has been celebrated in the US. It’s the most popular song that is sung before the race has come into the limelight again. “My Old Kentucky Home” is a song that places a soft corner in the hearts of every Kentucky citizen for the last 100 years. It became a traditional song in 1921.
As you all know, we have been going through a pandemic period for the last 2 years, so this time no audience is there to join the song. Because of COVID-19, millions of followers are watching television singing along to “My Old Kentucky Home”. But now it has become controversial. In this article, we are going to tell you the reason behind it.
What do you know about the Kentucky Derby?
The Kentucky Derby is a horse race celebrated as a festival every year in Louisville, Kentucky. It is held in the month of May, starts on a Sunday, and runs for two weeks.
You can see a special breed of horse in this race, “Thoroughbreds.” Clots (a male horse), Geldings (another male horse) can put on 57 kg and Fillies (a female horse) can put on 55 kg. There are three rounds to win the trophy, “Triple Crown”. In 1896, it was held for the first time in front of approximately 10,000 people.
Lyrics to “My Old Kentucky Home”
“My Old Kentucky Home” was narrated by Stephen Foster in 1853. It was the first time in 1921. Here are the lyrics to the song.
Oh, the sun shines bright
On my old Kentucky home
‘Tis summer,
The old folks are gay
Well, the corn top’s ripe
And the meadow’s in the bloom
While the birds make music
All the day
Weep no more, my lady
Oh, weep no more, today
We sing one song
For my old Kentucky home
For my old Kentucky home
Far away.
Well, the young folks roll
All around the cabin floor
They’re merry, all
Happy and bright
By ‘n by hard times will
A-come a-knockin’ at my door
Then my old Kentucky home
Good night
Weep no more, my lady
No, weep no more, today
We sing one song
For my old Kentucky home
For my old Kentucky home
Far away.
Weep no more, my lady
Oh, weep no more, today
We sing one song
For my old Kentucky home
For my old Kentucky home
Far away.
For my old Kentucky home
Far away
Why is the song “My Old Kentucky Home” so controversial?
Here is the answer to your question. This song became popular because of the meaning behind it. This time it’s blamed on racism. Stephen Forster wrote it to describe the pain of the slavery system. A condemnation of Kentucky people who are separated forcibly from their families and sold.
The feelings of a man who has been taken away from his wife and mothers who have been separated from their children. But now some say that it was written by a white person to a black person. This meaning is given to us by Bingham. Now, who is Binghams? She belongs to a royal family from Louisville. For three generations, they owned two newspapers, The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times, two radio stations, and a tv channel.
“I don’t believe it can be wrong to love a song, but I do believe we commit wrongs when we do not understand what we claim to love,” she wrote. “Refusing to look closely at uncomfortable aspects of history has hurt this nation and maybe its undoing. … Nearly 170 years ago, Foster copyrighted Black loss for white pleasure, comfort, and distraction. Over time, American society erected ‘My Old Kentucky Home’ as a sonic monument—impressive, opaque, and also contested—to white feeling and white forgetting, to a nation’s own segregated memory.”
One more interesting thing I would like to tell you is that this song was written by Foster after getting inspired by Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I hope you like it. Stay tuned Be with us for further updates