My Old Kentucky Home: The Astonishing Life and Reckoning of an Iconic American Song

by Emily S. Bingham

The long journey of an American song, from its enormous success in the early 1850s, written by a white man, considered the father of American music, about a Black man being sold downriver, performed for decades by white men in blackface, and the song, an anthem of longing and pain, turned upside down and, over time, becoming a celebration of happy plantation life.

It is the state song of Kentucky, a song that has inhabited hearts and memories, and in perpetual reprise, stands outside time; sung each May, before every Kentucky Derby, since 1930.

Written by Stephen Foster nine years before the Civil War, "My Old Kentucky Home" made its way through the wartime years to its decades-long run as a national minstrel sensation for which it was written; from its reference in the pages of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind to being sung on The Simpsons and Mad Men.

Originally called "Poor Uncle Tom, Good-Night!" and inspired by America's most famous abolitionist novel, it was a lament by an enslaved man, sold by his master, who must say goodbye to his beloved family and cherished birthplace, with hints of the brutality to come: "The head must bow and the back will have to bend / Wherever the darky may go / A few more days, and the trouble all will end / In the field where the sugar-canes grow . . ."

In My Old Kentucky Home, Emily Bingham explores the long, strange journey of what has come to be seen by some as an American anthem, an integral part of our folklore, culture, customs, foundation, a living symbol of a "happy past." But "My Old Kentucky Home" was never just a song. It was always a song about slavery with the real Kentucky home inhabited by the enslaved and shot through with violence, despair, and degradation.

Bingham explores the song's history and permutations from its decades of performances across the continent, entering into the bloodstream of American life, through its twenty-first-century reassessment. It is a song that has been repeated, taught, and passed down from generation to generation, bridging a nation's fraught disconnect between history and warped illusion, a revelation of the country's evolving self and a resonant changing emblem of America's original sin whose blood-drenched shadow hovers and haunts us still.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Music, Historical, Audiobook, American History, Race

352 pages, Hardcover

Published May 3, 2022

About the author

Born into a journalism family, Emily early on decided she wanted to write. Among her grade-school efforts was a poem inspired by the typewriter her father gave her as a child, and on which he typed bedtime stories as he told them. Her poem, “Typewriter,” weighed the options—poet, novelist, journalist. The opportunity to dig deep into the past to tell true stories that shine a light on how we got here came later when she caught the bug for archival research and enrolled in Chapel Hill’s US history doctoral program.

Emily is currently Visiting Honors Faculty Fellow at Bellarmine University. Her essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in Vogue, Ohio Valley History, The Journal of Southern History, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and New England Review. Her books are Irrepressible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham (2015), Mordecai: An Early American Family (2003), and, as editor with Thomas A. Underwood, The Southern Agrarians and the New Deal: Essays After I’ll Take My Stand (2001). She and her husband Stephen Reily have three children.

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was raised as a Black person to assume that "Classic" things like songs, statues, movies and sayings have racist origins unless I find out later they don't. My Old Kentucky Home is obviously the state song of my home Kentucky. As with all things Kentucky, I just assumed that My Old Kentucky Home had racist origins...and boy was I right!

Emily Bingham a white woman grew up singing that song and watching her father became teary eyed singing it. It wasn't until her adult years that she became aware of the original lyrics of the songs and so began her journey to explore the evolution of this very famous and iconic song.

🎵

The Sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home,
Tis summer, the darkies are gay;

🎵

The time has come when the darkies have to part,
Then my old Kentucky Home, good night



Those are just a couple of the original lyrics to the song. Those lyrics were still being sung up until 30 - 40 years ago. And for years even with the "darkie" lyrics white people insisted this song wasn't racist in anyway. Because of its inclusion in the slavery movie Gone with the Wind, it suddenly became seen as an antislavery anthem despite being very very very pro slavery in its origin.

I've lived in Kentucky my whole life and despite it being the state song I've only heard the song a handful of times. I knew it was sang every year at the Derby but I live in Northern Kentucky so the Derby isn't a big deal up here. I have family further south a the song does seem to be more popular down there. One of my cousins even had to sing it every year in school.

It won't surprise you know that Black people have been trying for years to get rid of this song because it's racist. But white people have fought this in the name of "History and Tradition". It's interesting that "istory and Tradition" often only pertains to things white people like.

I'm happy that my local library carried this book, because alot of libraries in Kentucky are banning anything that calls out racism or homophobia. Unfortunately the main people who need to read this book won't because "Woke" or "CRT" or whatever other racist bullshit that Twitter traffics in. I do recommend this book to the shrinking number of people like me who think that actual history is important. I don't much care for propaganda. And I think it's important to learn about the systemic racism that this country is built on.

I don't know if Emily Bingham has other books but I'd she does I be interested in reading them. This book was an easy read. Nonfiction can often be dense and know alit of people feel intimidated by it but I think that even people who don't often read Nonfiction will enjoy this book.

[Linden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know very little about the Kentucky Derby, but apparently the singing of this song was an important part of it. Bingham examines the Stephen Foster song, excoriating its racist lyrics. It's been remembered as a sweet song sung by someone longing for the past, but a close look at the lyrics paint a very different picture. The song is also a gateway to her thorough research, much of it hard to read, discussing how black musicians were treated in the 19th and early 20th century, and the prevalence of blackface minstrelsy.Three and a half stars. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen Foster was America’s first hit songwriter and his songs were iconic when I was growing up. I remember a friend who particularly loved I Dream of Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair. And, I remember my dad asking me to play Old Black Joe while he quietly sang along. I strummed the guitar and sang Oh! Susannah! to entertain my young son (the version without the racist lyrics), and played Beautiful Dreamer on the piano.

How does Foster fare in the 21st c? How do we react to music that arose from such a different era? As a young preteen, I didn’t think much about Old Black Joe being a slave–I hadn’t even studied the Civil War in history class.

I had heard of My Old Kentucky Home, but I had never sang it. It wasn’t part of my heritage. We drove through Kentucky on vacation once. Emily Bingham is a native with ancestors who were slave owners. She loved horses and the Kentucky Derby. And, she is a historian grappling with her heritage. I was curious about My Old Kentucky Home and the song’s musical, social and political history.

Bingham traces the song’s development from Foster’s inspiration in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It was used in blackface minstrel shows. The erasure of it’s slave cabin imagery and expropriation by white Southerners turned it into a nostalgic hymn to plantation life. It was used to promote Kentucky as a tourist attraction and became the veritable anthem of Churchill Downs. It’s lyrics were used for white supremist book titles!

The song’s reclamation changed “The darkies were gay” to “everyone was gay”, and “the darkies must part” to “a friend must part.” The changes also masked the song’s racist history.

Bingham presents a deep exploration of the hidden racism in traditions we nostalgically cling to.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

[Mike Shoop · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this pretty much one very long and painful diatribe against Stephen Foster and his most well known song, castigating Foster for ever writing it and blaming the song itself for doing untold emotional damage to black Americans for generations after its publication in 1853.
I learned some useful facts concerning Foster and his life, thought her sections about what became Kentucky's state song, how it was inspired by Uncle Tom's Cabin, and how it has been adapted and used over the years quite interesting, her section on Federal Hill and the Rowans was most revealing, and her research is definitely on display. Portions were a bit dry, but overall the narrative was well written.
However, as history is history whether you like it or not, I don't condone rewriting a song (or any type of creative artwork) created decades ago because the language isn't currently appropriate and appealing or pleasing to make it more palatable to modern audiences. How would any author or writer like having their work treated in such a manner? Why are we so focused on reaching into the past and changing/removing/destroying pieces of our heritage? It's all part of who we are, what makes us a country, and just because a current movement or trend deems it no longer relevant or hurtful does not mean to throw it out. It bugs me that writers want to put our 21st century sensibilities and sensitivities on events and people in the past. Those in the past acted, felt, wrote, spoke, thought and participated in life as it existed then. Just as we do today. I apologize for nothing my ancestors did; they made their own mistakes then as I make mine now. It really struck me that at times, Bingham almost seemed to take delight in belittling or denigrating her own race, which I found irritating and unnecessary.
Informative this may have been concerning Foster and the song's history, but in the end, it comes off more as one wealthy Southern white woman's trying to assuage her own guilt for her Kentucky family's participation in an institution that of course was terribly wrong but was pervasive at the time and making a scapegoat out of a song that has made money and notoriety for many and been beloved by millions. The song is a part of our culture, like it or not, we should never try to erase it or change it, but explain it, tell the whole story, and move forward.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

As publishers of the state's leading newspaper for many years, the Binghams are Kentucky royalty, so having one of them come out firmly on the side of getting rid of our beloved but questionable state song is a powerful statement. Funnily, the reviews of this book that I have seen and Ms. Bingham's online bio don't mention her family, but she discusses it openly in the book, including acknowledgement of some of her family connections to slavery, the Klan and twentieth century racism, though the recent generations of her family have been known for their intelligent liberal leanings. I wish I could say that my somewhat less distinguished family did better, but I also regrettably have slave owners on both sides of my family. Just because my mother's family had a wooden floor in the one room slave cabin that still stood when I was a child didn't make the people who lived in it any less enslaved.

Of course anyone who grew up in Kentucky in the 60s is aware of the controversy over the "D" word in the first verse and the false suggestion of happy slaves that continues to exist even in the sanitzed version that is usually sung today. But until reading this book, I had not really paid attention to what the song is about. I had somehow thought it was about a white person's wistful regret for the supposed glory days of the old South. It's not. As I learned here, it was written as a romanticized version of the story of Uncle Tom being sold South from "Uncle Tom's Cabin, " and though Uncle Tom's name was removed by Foster from his published version of the song, it's still about the horrors of being sold South and then worked to death on a giant factory plantation. And though I was vaguely aware of the song's connection to the world of blackface minstrel performances, I had not realized how the song had been such an integral part of the minstrel repertoire.

I'm with Ms. Bingham. We need to get rid of this thing. It's racist through and through. No amount of tears and nostalgia and tradition can make it right. It has to go.

[Sarah Schulman]

A fascinating analysis of how a trifling, pandering work that upheld the nation's worst values was marketed and branded as an authentic record of sentiment. Very relevant and familiar paradigm with great potential for application to our own period.

[Debbe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a call out on a disturbing Kentucky tradition that needs to go away. Now that I know the history I’ll never sing it again. This song is not about home.

[Kathleen Ninke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thrilled to have finally checked this one off the list, and I am a better Kentuckian for it.

The song “My Old Kentucky Home” is ubiquitous in the commonwealth. Kentucky has adopted it as the unofficial state anthem–not to mention its prime position at the nationally broadcast Derby. Furthermore, it remains embedded in the hearts of residents old and new, young and seasoned. But there’s a truth that Louisville historian Emily Bingham is hardly the first to unearth: this song is actually a Blackface minstrel tune that romanticizes slavery and was penned in the pre-Civil War North by a drunk white man. So what in the name of 2023 are we doing still giving it such a place of honor? The answer is sometimes complex (powerful capitalists distorting the facts to cater to the nostalgia of the masses, Jim Crow whites singing along to perpetuate implied threats of violence, occasionally Black rights activists hoping to reclaim the song’s narrative to achieve their own ends)–though at times, unsurprisingly, so, so simple (racism).

As mentioned, Bingham is not the first to point out the song’s problematic nature, but she might be the first to write down the full history like this. Furthermore, she examines her own place in the history. She’s white, at least somewhat generationally wealthy, and descended from a family with deep, influential roots in the region. Bingham seems to know that because of all these factors, she’s being watched carefully for bias. I would say–at least to this one white reader–she nails the tone of personal responsibility.

This book is chock-full of important information. 5 for that. But it’s balanced out by maybe a 3.5 for readability IMO? It’s awfully academic, and while Bingham is clearly a great academic writer, some of her sentences are stilted enough that my non-academic brain had to read them over and over to grasp the meaning. Narratively though, I enjoyed how she presented the overarching story of this song, and I learned everything about it that I never wanted–and always needed–to know.

[Jonas Short · Rating 3 out of 5]

The research at the heart of this book is an excellently argued re-examination of the eponymous Stephen Foster song. With that said, the framing left much to be desired. I don’t know if it’s a trend among publishers or agents, but the kind of moral handwringing white authors are bringing to such topics has quickly gotten old.

Yes, we should seek to re-examine our assumptions and build a better society. No, you don’t really need to share your life story to make that point. What could have been a nice foreword or introduction became the boring and predictable narrative arc for an otherwise great bit of scholarship.

[Emma Presnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

This was wildly fascinating and the audiobook was great.

[Tracy R · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.4 stars

Ms. Bingham has opened my eyes to a need to change our state (KY) song.
Thank you

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historian Emily Bingham’s My Old Kentucky Home: The Astonishing Life and Reckoning of an Iconic American Song provides readers with a detailed, thoroughly researched account not only of Stephen Foster’s song and the legends that sprouted up around it, but also of the racial context from which song and legends grew and within which they have flourished for nearly 170 years. Born into the Bingham family that bought the Louisville Courier Journal in 1918 and eventually also controlled the Louisville Times and WHAS radio and TV, Emily Bingham makes a strong case for systemic racism and the need for reckoning and change.

Bingham begins by discussing Foster’s 1852 catalyst, the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s cabin, which gave rise to his first draft of a song titled “Poor Uncle Tom, Good Night,” “depoliticized” and published the next year as “My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night!” Tracing Foster’s career, Bingham also points out how the song portrayed black folks’ fond memories of plantation life in Kentucky as, historically, slaves were fleeing to Canada to escape forced return to their owners under the Fugitive Slave Act.

The remaining nine chapters follow in roughly chronological order, covering white minstrelsy, black minstrelsy, the Spanish American War and St. Louis world’s fair, early 20th century ”Black Uplift,” The story of Josiah Kirby Lilly (of Eli Lilly drug company) and his Foster collection, the campaign to turn the decaying Rowan home in Bardstown, Kentucky into a major tourist attraction as automobile travel increased, the Black Power movement and strengthening the myths behind the song—a few steps forward and backward, and the later 20th century.

Bingham then ends with a “Coda,” bringing readers up to the song’s use as a COVID “balm” until George Floyd’s death on a Minneapolis street and Breonna Taylor’s shooting death in her own Kentucky home opened some eyes and prompted a few questions—but still not enough.

Throughout each section, Bingham ties history to song, showing changes made to the lyric, appearances of the song in traveling shows and films and the controversies surrounding those productions, failed attempts to debunk false narratives, and much more.

Emily Bingham spares no one, least of all herself, a native-born Kentuckian who grew up attending the Kentucky Derby, seeing tears of pride in spectator’s eyes as horses approached the starting gate to the strains of “My Old Kentucky home,” feeling her own sense of pride, and believing everything she heard—until she didn’t believe any longer. This powerful book results from years of research.

Although narrative history, with never a footnote number, My Old Kentucky Home: The Astonishing Life and Reckoning of an Iconic American Song includes extensive sources clearly linked to the main text by order and identified by brief quotes. Although this citation method does not work well for ebooks, where clicking on a footnote number typically pops up a citation window, one could argue that it’s less disruptive to reading. In a print copy, the reader wanting to check source citations frequently could use a bookmark in the back to keep track of progress.

Novelist, short story writer, and critic Bobbie Ann Mason--a fellow native Kentuckian of Bingham--aptly
sums up this urgent study: “Emily Bingham has painstakingly created a history quilt out of the intricacies of the profound effects of a single song on American culture. The result is wonder and dismay—and a lesson for today in how propaganda works. The story is compelling because it is about us, all Americans. The song ties us together or divides us in ways that can make you shudder to know your part in it. And yet that seductive melody is there, drawing us along through our complicated history. Bingham doesn’t let us escape. We’re gripped by the story and enlightened by her telling. She delves into some of the deepest issues America has ever faced, issues that are still unresolved. This book is not simply about lyrics of a song but how that song has been used to tell a lie.”

Some readers will be screaming “Critical Race Theory!” All the more reason to read Bingham’s book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday for an advance reader copy.

[Barrett Gough · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted really not to like this book, especially because I found the opening pages uneven. But damn, it was good, and exhaustive, and, frankly, unflinching. I appreciate the word "reckoning" in the title. This is the first book that, upon reading it, has actually forced a change in my daily habits, which was singing this song to my child before her nap. About once a month now she reminds me that this song is "still in her head" and she would like to sing it, but she understands that we cannot. She's 4 and I marvel at her capacity to hold complex ideas in her brain.

[Pearl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned several things about Stephen Foster and his music, especially about “My Old Kentucky Home” of course, given the book’s title. I learned some things about Emily Bingham, too. She mixes a little personal history with the history of the song she writes about.

Bingham is a native Kentuckian. Her family has been prominent there as owner/publisher of a large newspaper and their name has been almost synonymous with liberal in that state; but in the early years her ancestors were slave owners. All of this is relevant to Emily as she awakens to the inherent and to the obvious racism in Kentucky’s much loved, much performed state song.

Her blindness didn’t surprise me much. I have always loved Stephen Foster’s music. So many favorites. (“Beautiful Dreamer,” “I Dream of Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair,” and others). I never really thought about the words at all. Despite her extensive research into Stephen Foster – his life and his struggles – it’s difficult to discern the extent to which he knew he was writing racist songs. His parents were abolitionists and he apparently had leanings that way also. He is heralded as the father of American popular music. His music grew out of minstrel songs. (White folks putting on blackface and mimicking them mostly in unflattering ways). Foster considered this low class music, but the public loved it and, more importantly, would pay to hear it. His songs are not minstrel music but they’re not what he wanted to write. He tried to move to what he thought of as more sophisticated music, but he couldn’t sell it. Sheet music was all the rage back then. He wrote what could sell. Even so, he was constantly in debt and died fairly young and impoverished. He left scores of songs that others have made money from.

The original idea for “My Old Kentucky Home” probably came from “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a prominent abolitionist of the time. Are Foster’s sympathies with the slave who is being sold from the plantation in Kentucky to a worse fate from which there is no escape? Probably, but he does much to make plantation life (i.e. slavery) in Kentucky palatable.
“the sun shines bright,” “the darkies are gay (ignore the word “darkies” for a moment),” “the young folk” are having a good time playing “on the little cabin floor” and when the slave is sold he longs for his “old Kentucky home… where all was delight,” and so on.

Bingham traces financial hard times in Kentucky, its need for tourism to help out, and how elevating this song and making up myths and downright lies about Foster visiting and writing this song and others on a plantation in Kentucky made it Kentucky’s popular state song and, indeed, the opening song for the Kentucky Derby. She also tells us that when times changed and the use of “darkies” became unacceptable the word was changed to “people.” But as objectionable as that word is, it is hardly the most unacceptable element of the song. The song is unacceptable partly because Foster paints a false picture of plantation life for the slave, making it cherished and partly because he has us sing family disintegration into white middle class sentiment that almost entirely bypasses actual black feeling.

This song as almost all of Foster’s other songs about slavery makes slavery, if not quite benign, certainly palatable. Furthermore it upends slavery. Those were happy times. At least, white folks like to think so. But it's not all Foster's fault. In a slightly revised version, people, not darkies, look back and long for their old Kentucky home. Black suffering gets erased and the song becomes one of white nostalgia and even one where whites claim black suffering for their own: “Weep no more my lady”- you see how sympathetic the probable mistress of the plantation was! “The head must bow and the back will have to bend,/ Wherever the darky may go;…A few more days for to tote the weary load,/…A few more days till we totter on the road,” But “weep no more my lady/ Oh! Weep no more today!/ We will sing one song/ For My Old Kentucky Home/ for My Old Kentucky Home, far away.”

The music is so melodic and the tune so sing-able, but should we sing it, even with changed words? Emily Bingham doesn’t say NO to every Foster song but she says an emphatic NO to “My Old Kentucky Home.”

Bingham is obviously a careful historian, but she really gets into the weeds in this book. I got bogged down in several places. I give her book 3-1/2 stars and could round it up to 4, since Good Reads doesn’t allow half stars; or I could round it down to 3. Despite a lot of good information, I rounded it down. I found it too detailed in places. Still a worthwhile read.

[Duane Nickell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was born and raised in Kentucky and so I really wanted to like this book. But I found the writing extremely dry and academic and often overly detailed. For example, at one point the author spends three pages summarizing the plot of a play. And she has an odd and persistent habit of quoting one or two words rather than full phrases or sentences. When done every now and then this is OK, but she did it over and over again. The book wasn't poorly written, just not engagingly written. On the positive side, it was well-researched and beginning with Chapter 7, I found the book much more interesting (this is when she got to the modern history of the song). The other thing that I didn't like was the author's constant haranguing about racism and white supremacy. For the record, I'm politically progressive and know from my other reading how despicably Blacks have been treated in this country. But the best books on the subject of racism (e.g., "Caste") let the stories speak for themselves without the preaching about white privilege.
The author concludes by saying that public performances of the song "is by definition an act of white supremacy, whether done consciously or unthinkingly. For me, singing and celebrating Stephen Foster's song is no longer possible." (p. 229) But there are other composers who's music has a checkered history. The German composer Richard Wagner was anti-semitic and his music was used by the Nazis. Should we not allow public performances of his compositions? (Wagner's music has been booed in Israel.) If we apply this standard to politics, the Democratic Party was, from the mid 1800s to the mid 1900s, the party that supported slavery and Jim Crow. Today, the Democratic Party has evolved into a political organization that champions civil rights and enjoys the support of the vast majority of Black Americans. Should we condemn the Democrats for their unsavory past?
When I sing "My Old Kentucky Home," slavery is the furthest thing from my mind. To me, it's a song simply about home. And that's how I think nearly everybody in Kentucky feels about the song. I'm glad the offensive language is gone, but now leave it alone. It's one of the most beautiful melodies ever written. So Ms. Bingham, I'll continue to sing.

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

A staggeringly clear and amazing book about the song 'My Old Kentucky Home,' why it is continually played at the Kentucky Derby every year, and why it is one of the most racist and harmful songs in American history, yet is still bandied about like it deserves the highest elevation. The original lyrics include racial slurs toward Black people and were a huge part of the reinforcement of images in the minds of Americans, when it first came out, and probably long after, of "the good old Plantation days" with a view of enslaved people of African descent as happy singing and dancing buffoons. As soon as I read that Stephen Foster was behind this, I knew from my study of blackface minstrelsy and minstrel shows, how this was going to go. Long hailed and in many circles still hailed, very disgustingly, as the 'father' of American music--not only does a statement like that negate all of the Black influences on music that Foster cobbled together in his compositions, but also that white American music is rooted in messages of hatred and outright mockery toward Black communities and people. The author, a Kentucky native herself, explains how she used to feel this homesick/nostalgia/pride about the song, years before she learned its true roots, steeped in racism. The author also explains how the Kentucky Derby was politicized in many cases as with Nixon, who used it as a way to appeal to Southern voters by attending one year while he was in contention for the presidency. He promised that if he won the presidency that he would return to the Derby, and he did both of those things.

Told in an engaging style, and with a current description of more contemporary injustices that have gone on (and are still happening) in Kentucky, "My Old Kentucky Home" is an essential text for anyone looking to learn about the roots of this song and of the Derby, but so much more.

[Mary M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a forty-year resident of Kentucky, but not born here, I don't have the deep emotional connection to the iconic American song of this book that author Emily Bingham describes. Yet, it is deeply familiar, likely finding its way into my memory banks from school singing, cartoon soundtracks, & old movies, & reinforced through its annual Kentucky Derby performances & one long-ago visit to the Bardstown outdoor theater production of The Stephen Foster Story.

The song is iconic & emotional & tradition, but the myths surrounding it are a sham & shameful to the core. It is truly disturbing how easily the origin story of this song & of Foster's own life story were obfuscated with layer after layer of rumor, self-seeking regard, & promotional flim-flam. A song written for the black-face minstrel circuit, using derogatory terms for enslaved people, & covering its own acknowledgment of cruel practices with a sheen of nostalgia for the lost plantation lifestyle has, as Bingham proposes, no place at the center of public events.

[Nancy Jentsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I learned a lot from this book: about Federal Hill (the historic home erroneously associated with the song), the Kentucky Derby, Kentucky politics and certainly about race relations, I was disappointed by sweeping generalities that interrupted my reading. For example, on p. 164: After all, no European immigrant to North America, dating back at least to 1619, had assimilated to the new continent without depending to some degree on the uses that darker-skinned people and representations of them could be put to." In this any many other instances, I could have used further clarification and or examples.
A minor point, but . . . The author often misused the word "melody" in the text. A melody is a series of notes and is distinct from the text set to it.
Just as the author was unsure of where to go with the information she gleaned from watching the series "Roots" in the seventies, I'm not sure of where to go with what I've learned from this book.

[Anne Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone who read and loved How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith, I want to recommend My Old Kentucky Home by Emily Bingham.

Though it is not as beautifully crafted as Smith’s book (he is a poet, after all!), the essential unraveling of the false narratives that our society so often weaves around songs, statues, stories, even history, is wonderfully undertaken in this book.

She traces the song from the brief life of its author, Stephen Foster, through the years in politics and popular culture all the way to today.

This was a choice in my book club, quarterly we ask a member to choose a book reflective of where they come from (We call it regional studies.). I would never have picked this book up without that fact, but now I’m wishing I knew of more in this genre. If you have any titles, do share!

[Nancy Millichap · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read a review of this book, I knew it was a must-read. Every spring, along with thousands or maybe even millions around the country in front of their TVs, I listen as the in-person crowd at the Kentucky Derby sings this well-known Stephen Foster number. But until I read Bingham's compelling account, I had no idea about its place in American cultural and racist history. I've read a lot of books in recent years about exactly how our long national shame, enslaving Africans, has influenced today's America, but this one comes at it from a somewhat different and more specific angle ... and shows just how insidious and pernicious a strong appeal to sentiment - and of course a compelling tune - can be. Also, Kentucky * remained in the Union* during the Civil War ... something you'd never guess from the ethos surrounding this persistent tune.

[Scott Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes there is more to a song then simply a song. Hence this work, which looks at the classic song associated with Kentucky and the South. The origins of this American work come from that most American of composers, Stephen Foster. From there, the author follows the arc of history, from the Civil War, to Reconstruction to Jim Crow and the modern era, all while noting the impact and impressions of this song. Now as much associated with the Kentucky Derby and University of Kentucky athletics, the song still stirs passions from all parties and sides. The lyrics have been modified over time, but the message, from its original words to the modern era, still remains.

Good writing and this tale brings in so many other aspects, not just music and history, but all forms of entertainment as well. Worth the read.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author reveals the origins of the “iconic” Stephen Foster’s sentimentalized song about chattel slavery and how white Kentuckians embraced and capitalized its nostalgia for “home” while conveniently ignoring the harm it did and still does to Black citizens.

She does not shy away from her own ignorance about the lyrics and their true meaning nor her upbringing as a child of wealth and white privilege or the broader willingness by whites to turn a blind eye to the history surrounding the song.

A worthwhile and relevant read in this time when the push to expunge the racist history of our country lest it make someone feel “uncomfortable” is being embraced by politicians, right wing news, and those who follow them.

[Jeanne Baker Stinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very thought provoking book. In the end, I felt like a person who had been defending the confederate flag as "just a piece of personal heritage and pride". In other words, it felt a bit like my love of the song "My Old Kentucy Home" and my inevitable tears when I hear it (usually at the Derby but at other times as well) are things that I need to give up and that I am on the wrong side of history. I'll revisit this as I learn more about American History (the version that is about everyone and doesn't gloss over slavery or ignore the origins of difficult things). At the same time, we do need to keep history alive and in the forefront of our minds. Maybe there is a way to reclaim this song. (But, in my view, the flag can't be reclaimed...)

[Luannette Butler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting reading

As an 84 year old native Kentuckian I found reading this book was both thought provoking and irritating. Although I have loved this song for most of my time on earth I have not loved the racial atrocities I personally viewed, such as the “Colored” restroom in the alley behind the Scott County, Kentucky courthouse. I also realized as a child that sending our grade school textbooks to the “Colored” school just wasn’t the right thing to do. This author could have included more of these contrasts and also presented the history of segregation in Kentucky in better chronological order. Several parts were hard to follow because of this.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

As someone who grew up watching the Derby and, yes, has shed a tear over the Kentucky anthem, especially after living away for two decades, I was eager to read this. While packed with history and facts I didn't know, much of it was too dryly academic for me. I found the personal asides, of which there were few, and the more modern history surrounding the song and the historic site most readable. Like the author, I can no longer in good conscience embrace the celebratory nature of this song. I like her idea of relinquishing it and "leaving its future fate to Black Americans."

[Jamey Yadon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The argument is thorough and pretty compelling, but it could have been made in the length of an essay. It's a history that we as a nation and as Kentuckians must reckon with, but Brigham's purposes could have been accomplished in a much briefer format.

Her conclusion is that this song that began as a minstrel song about a slave sold away to the South cannot be redeemed. The question that lingers in my mind is this: Can a song truly change meaning over time? Can it become something other than what it was written to be?

[Vickie Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book

A very interesting and well written book. As a historian I appreciate the excellent research that went into writing the details, both good and bad. But there’s an air of shaming the reader, the white reader, which is not a true history book but an opinion book, something I didn’t realize until I started reading. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to lovers of history. Just know this author gives her opinion on the subject.

[Andrea Sand · Rating 5 out of 5]

The use of "astonishing" in the subtitle certainly isn't hyperbole. The author unveils one eye-opening fact after the other regarding the knotty connections between a beloved American song and American racism. I recall reading an Amazon review that said this book should be required reading for white people. I agree.

[Carly Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book traces the history of the Stephen Foster song "My Old Kentucky Home" from the time it was written in 1853 as a ministrel song through its adoption by various people and groups as a way to uphold white supremacy in the US. Fascinating microhistory.

[Alex Stephenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit too much on-the-nose white guilt going on here, but the combination of personal framing with academic history is a fascinating one and a more contemporary framing of Foster's classic song (and legacy in general) is important to grapple with.