Kate Smith’ s version of Irving Berlin‘s song God Bless America has been part of American sports tradition for decades.
However, a recent revelation that she also recorded two songs with racist content in the 1930s (That’s Why Darkies Were Born (1931) and Pickaninny Heaven (1933) has resulted in cancellation of playing God Bless America by the New York Yankees baseball and the Philadelphia Flyers hockey teams.
Wherever you stand on the issue of banning all works of a performer because of past racist lyrics, listening to these two Kate Smith songs from the 1930s is a shocking reminder of how common casual racism was in America’s not too distant past.
Popular during WWII, Kate Smith’s radio and recording career reached its pinnacle in the 1940s – when she was known as The Songbird of the South.
In the 1950s, she had two TV shows: the late afternoon Kate Smith Hour and the Kate Smith Evening Hour. She continued on the Mutual Broadcasting System, CBS, ABC, and NBC with music and talk shows on radio until 1960.
Singing God Bless America at the Philadelphia Flyers hockey games from 1969-1976, Smith attracted new national attention.
However, in 1960, as she faded from the limelight and rock and roll increased in popularity, the Kate Smith Show lasted only six months.
In 1982, U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan awarded Kate Smith the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In his 2005 book, Robert C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields, Byrd recalled how his ability to quickly recruit 150 of his friends to the group impressed a top Klan official who told him, “You have a talent for leadership, Bob … The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation.” Byrd later recalled, “Suddenly lights flashed in my mind! Someone important had recognized my abilities!” Byrd led the growing chapter and was eventually elected Exalted Cyclops of the local Klan unit.
In a 1944 letter to segregationist Mississippi Senator Theodore G. Bilbo, Byrd wrote, “I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.”
More than 50 buildings built with funds from US taxpayers directed to West Virginia are named for either Byrd or his wife, Erma Ora Byrd (née James).[2] Several transportation projects named for Byrd have gained national notoriety, including the Robert C. Byrd Highway.[8] Also known as “Corridor H” of the Appalachian Development Highway System, the highway was dubbed “West Virginia’s road to nowhere” i
I wonder why no one is insisting that all these buildings be renamed. He was elected Senate Majority leader by his Democratic colleagues 3 times. Should his likenesses be removed from all Federal buildings?
God Bless America with all our faults – past and present.