NY Yankees, Philadelphia Flyers Stop Honoring Kate Smith and “God Bless America” Over Racism
The New York Yankees baseball team and the Philadelphia Flyers NHL hockey team both dropped their honors of singer Kate Smith and her famous recording of “God Bless America,” it was reported on this day in The New York Times.
The reason was the racist content of lyrics to the song she sang in the 1930s and other overtly racist songs in her repertoire.
“God Bless America” was written by the famed composer Irving Berlin in 1918 during World War I (he was in the military service at the time, but did not go oversees), and he revised it in 1938 as the world seemed headed for another world war. Kate Smith introduced the revised song at an Armistice Day event in 1938. It became an immediate hit and soon became her signature song. Although Berlin wrote it as a “peace song,” it has been generally interpreted as a an anthem to American patriotism, with the implication that because God has “blessed America criticisms of the country and its policies are unpatriotic.
Folk Singer Woody Guthrie, a committed leftist critic of injustice in America, reacted against the song and it 1940 composed his now-famous song “This Land is Your Land.”
The New York Yankees had played Smith’s recording of “God Bless America” during the Seventh Inning Stretch since 2001. In response to a critical email from a fan about Smith’s racism they stopped playing the recording. The Philadelphia Flyers had been playing the song as a replacement for the National Anthem in important matches since at least the 1970s. Smith sang it live before Game 6 of the 1974 Stanley Cup final, which the Flyers won and captured the Stanley Cup championship. Regarding Smith and the song as a good luck sign, the Flyers continued playing a recording of it and in 1987 erected a statue of Smith in front of the arena where they play in 1987. At some point in this year, the Flyers both stopped playing a recording of Smith singing the song at games, and also placed a cover over the statue. Both the Yankees and the Flyers issued public statements disavowing racism.
Learn more at the Kate Smith Commemorative Society web site here
And learn more about Woody Guthrie and “This Land is Your Land” here
And still more at the Woody Guthrie Center web site