One of the most notable pastimes at the Kentucky Derby is a playing of the old Stephen Foster song “My Old Kentucky Home.”
While it’s the Kentucky state song, the ballad carries with it a good bit of controversy for its origins.
The song was written by Foster in 1853 for a traveling minstrel group, per The Courrier-Journal‘s Chris Kenning. The initial lyrics featured a racist term used to describe the Black slaves of the time, as the content of the song involves a slave being sold into bondage and saying farewell to their home.
Kenning wrote about this specific context of the song’s problematic origins back in 2019.
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Written in 1853 by Stephen Foster for a traveling minstrel group, the song is a slave’s lament about being sold down the river. The slave is saying goodbye to Kentucky to face abuse and toil in the “land where the sugar canes grow.”
The original lyrics included the line, “the darkies are gay,” before the Kentucky General Assembly in 1986 changed some of the offending words, substituting “people” for “darky” and “darkies.”
Ricky Jones, chair of Pan-African Studies at the University of Louisville, said he still takes a seat when it is played.
“They should have left that song in the past when they left that line in the past,” he said.
In 2022, The New York Times‘ Rick Bragg referred to “My Old Kentucky Home” as “the racist song that has dug deep roots in American culture.”
The University of Louisville marching band traditionally plays the song at Churchill Downs to mark another Kentucky Derby in the state’s history.
Despite the controversy, there are no plans to remove it from the weekend’s festivities.
In 2022, Churchill Downs Incorporated CEO Bill Carstanjen told Sports Illustrated‘s Pat Forde that they would continue using the song for the foreseeable future.
“It’s the state song,” Carstanjen told the outlet. “It has been for over 100 years. It’s overwhelmingly supported by our fans. It’s part of the tradition, part of the fabric of the event. We plan to continue playing it with our signature event.”
