“Riders up!” is the familiar cry that starts a horse race, as it did this year at the 153rd running of the Kentucky Derby. And then, as the horses make their way from the paddock to the starting gate, “My Old Kentucky Home” is sung, as it has been since about 1921 and, since 1936, by the University of Louisville Cardinal Singers. The initial working title was “Poor Uncle Tom, Goodnight” because the song was influenced by Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
But the song today isn’t quite the same song that had been sung for so many decades; the words were revised in 1986. The word “darkies” was changed to “people.”
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