The Kentucky state song “My Old Kentucky Home” has been played prior to the Kentucky Derby for the last 100 years.
The Kentucky Derby is refusing to cave to the woke mob. Despite pushback from the Left, the state song of Kentucky will be played before tomorrow’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.
The Kentucky state song “My Old Kentucky Home” is traditionally played prior to the running of the Kentucky Derby. The University of Louisville marching band plays the song while the more than 160,000 spectators in attendance sing the lyrics.
The beloved song has come under fire as of late, “while some people consider the song to be a powerful condemnation of slavery,” others have a problem with “its original title and lyrics, and the contexts in which it has been performed, including at minstrel shows.”
Smithsonian Magazine described the song as “a condemnation of Kentucky’s enslavers who sold husbands away from their wives and mothers away from their children,” and as “the lament of an enslaved person who has been forcibly separated from his family and his painful longing to return to the cabin with his wife and children.”
According to the Kentucky Derby website, the song has been played for the last 100 years. “Although there is no definitive history on the playing of the Stephen Foster ballad as a Derby Day tradition, it is believed to have originated in 1921 for the 47th running,” the website states.
But social justice activists say the song should not be played because of its connection to America’s antebellum past.
According to WLKY, the song will be played as usual on Saturday, and Churchill Downs did not say there would be any changes to the pre-race tradition.
“So what’s happening this year? All we know is the band will play the song as usual. We asked Churchill Downs if there would be any changes like last year, but they did not respond to that specific question,” WLKY reported.
Watch it here: Kentucky Derby/Youtube
Sources: WLKY-TV, kentuckyderby, DailyWire, WFPL, Smithsonian Magazine
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