Green Susanna

Stephen Foster (1826 – 1864) is called “the father of American music.” Much of what he wrote is mistaken for American folk songs, including “Camptown Races,” “Swanee River,” “Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair,” “My Old Kentucky Home,” “Beautiful Dreamer” and “Oh Susanna.” You may have heard a statue honoring Stephen Foster was recently removed from a Pittsburgh park because it contained “racial imagery.” The statue shows a well-dressed man, seated and writing as a barefoot, bearded and man seated slightly lower than himself plays a banjo. When it was erected 118 years ago, it wasn’t designed to give offense, but plenty of people are offended now. Was Foster a racist? By today’s standards, maybe. Though they were northerners, his parents weren’t abolitionists. But Foster was the first white American to call a black woman a lady in his ballad “Nelly Was a Lady.” And “Uncle Ned,” the song this statue depicted, was probably America’s first anti-slavery anthem.