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This week in lib statue removal: Songwriter of "Oh Susannah, Camptown Races"

'Oh! Susanna' songwriter's statue removed from Pittsburgh pa...
trip jet-lagged heaven
  04/26/18
I was like WTF are these shitlibs talking about until I saw ...
dashing clear hominid
  04/26/18
He wrote songs about playing the banjo in Alabama, so they s...
trip jet-lagged heaven
  04/26/18
yeah libs may not be out of line on this one
Insecure trailer park
  04/26/18
Why is this offensive? There were slaves in the old south. S...
electric dilemma international law enforcement agency
  04/26/18
? looks pretty happy to me
obsidian house-broken roast beef fortuitous meteor
  04/26/18
"He died penniless in New York City in 1864 at age 37.&...
Sinister house
  04/26/18
alcoholic.
Opaque doctorate
  04/26/18
have you ever heard the original lyrics to the second verse ...
Opaque doctorate
  04/26/18
"My Old Kentucky Home" is played every year at the...
Sinister house
  04/26/18
but not with the original lyrics ...
Opaque doctorate
  04/26/18
This was wrong
ruby regret associate
  10/03/20


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Date: April 26th, 2018 5:03 PM
Author: trip jet-lagged heaven

'Oh! Susanna' songwriter's statue removed from Pittsburgh park after criticism

Stephen Foster's other songs include "Camptown Races," ''My Old Kentucky Home," ''Beautiful Dreamer" and "Old Folks at Home."

PITTSBURGH — A 118-year-old statue of the "Oh! Susanna" songwriter was removed from a Pittsburgh park Thursday after criticism that the work is demeaning because it includes a slave sitting at his feet, plucking a banjo.

In October, the Pittsburgh Art Commission voted to take the Stephen Foster sculpture out of Schenley Plaza and find it a new home. For now, it will remain in a storage lot, out of the public view.

On Thursday, workers used straps and construction equipment to lift the 10-foot-bronze statue off its base. It was strapped to a flatbed truck and taken away.

The Giuseppe Moretti statue was completed in 1900 and thousands attended its dedication.

The shoeless banjo player is based on "Uncle Ned," a fictional slave and subject of a song by the same name. Critics have long decried the statue as racist.

American musician and poet Stephen Collins Foster who wrote Oh! Susanna and Old Folks at Home also known as Swanee River.Bettmann Archive / Getty Images

"It's the single most offensive display of public art in Pittsburgh, hands down," Paradise Gray, a hip-hop activist, musician and writer, told the Post-Gazette in August . "It permanently depicts the black man at the white man's feet."

Others say it highlights that Foster was inspired by black spirituals. Some historians contend the 1848 song is actually an early, subtle anti-slavery song.

A statue honoring an African-American woman will be put up in its place. Residents can submit nominations.

Foster, a Pittsburgh native, is often called the father of American music and was known for enduring tunes from the 1800s.

His songs include "Camptown Races," ''My Old Kentucky Home," ''Beautiful Dreamer" and "Old Folks at Home" (Swanee Song).

He died penniless in New York City in 1864 at age 37.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/oh-susanna-songwriter-s-statue-removed-amid-criticism-n869321

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3960786&forum_id=2#35926636)



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Date: April 26th, 2018 5:05 PM
Author: dashing clear hominid

I was like WTF are these shitlibs talking about until I saw this pic:

https://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2018_17/2412286/180426-stephen-foster-statue-2-al-1306_dac55cd70d6bb2cd45d09fdbe1e35d31.fit-860w.jpg



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3960786&forum_id=2#35926657)



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Date: April 26th, 2018 5:07 PM
Author: trip jet-lagged heaven

He wrote songs about playing the banjo in Alabama, so they stuck a banjo player on the statue. It's offensive because he's black?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3960786&forum_id=2#35926669)



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Date: April 26th, 2018 5:12 PM
Author: Insecure trailer park

yeah libs may not be out of line on this one

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3960786&forum_id=2#35926707)



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Date: April 26th, 2018 5:23 PM
Author: electric dilemma international law enforcement agency

Why is this offensive? There were slaves in the old south. Some probably played the banjo

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3960786&forum_id=2#35926788)



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Date: April 26th, 2018 5:25 PM
Author: obsidian house-broken roast beef fortuitous meteor

? looks pretty happy to me

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3960786&forum_id=2#35926804)



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Date: April 26th, 2018 5:20 PM
Author: Sinister house

"He died penniless in New York City in 1864 at age 37."

Libs dancing on his unmarked grave

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3960786&forum_id=2#35926764)



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Date: April 26th, 2018 5:25 PM
Author: Opaque doctorate

alcoholic.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3960786&forum_id=2#35926807)



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Date: April 26th, 2018 5:27 PM
Author: Opaque doctorate

have you ever heard the original lyrics to the second verse of Oh Susanna? i'm no shitlib but there is a real issue.

it's sad because he wrote some of the best popular music our country will ever produce and he wrote it in a minstrel convention that at the time was what whites and blacks performed in. when you read those lyrics today, ouch.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3960786&forum_id=2#35926832)



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Date: April 26th, 2018 5:29 PM
Author: Sinister house

"My Old Kentucky Home" is played every year at the Derby.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3960786&forum_id=2#35926843)



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Date: April 26th, 2018 5:48 PM
Author: Opaque doctorate

but not with the original lyrics ...

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3960786&forum_id=2#35926947)



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Date: October 3rd, 2020 10:43 PM
Author: ruby regret associate

This was wrong

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3960786&forum_id=2#41042534)