That's why

[struggle4progress]

Brothers, sisters, when this world began, there was work to be done
and it seemed that someone left it to the colored man

Brothers, sisters, what must be, must be
Though the balance is wrong, still your faith must be strong
Accept your destiny

Brothers, listen to me...

Someone had to pick the cotton
Someone had to pick the corn
Someone had to slave and be able to sing
That's why darkies were born

Someone had to laugh at trouble though he was tired and worn
Had to be contented with any old thing
That's why darkies were born

Sing, sing, sing when you're weary and sing when you're blue
Sing, sing, that's what you taught all them white folks to do

Someone had to fight that old Devil, shout about Gabriel's Horn
Someone had to stoke that old train that would bring God's children to green pastures
That's why darkies were born

[struggle4progress]

1. Called for racial tolerance in this forgotten 1945 radio address

by John Timpane
April 25, 2019

... It seems to me that faith in the decency of human beings is what we must have more of, if there is to be a future for all of us in this world. We read in the papers every day about conferences on the best way to keep the peace. Well, I’m not an expert on foreign affairs — and I don’t pretend to know all the complex things that will have to be done for a lasting peace. But I am a human being — and I do know something about people. I know that our statesmen — our armies of occupation — our military strategists — may all fail if the peoples of the world don’t learn to understand and tolerate each other.

Race hatreds — social prejudices — religious bigotry — they are the diseases that eat away the fibers of peace. Unless they are exterminated it’s inevitable that we will have another war. And where are they going to be exterminated? At a conference table in Geneva? Not by a long shot. In your own city — your church — your children’s school — perhaps in your own home.

You and I must do it – every father and mother in the world, every teacher, everyone who can rightfully call himself a human being. Yes, it seems to me that the one thing the peoples of the world have got to learn if we are ever to have a lasting peace, is — tolerance. Of what use will it be if the lights go on again all over the world — if they don’t go on … in our hearts ...

https://www.philly.com/arts/kate-smith-racist-radio-address-flyers-statue-20190425.html

[struggle4progress]

2. What's the story behind those Kate Smith songs?

Updated: April 22, 2019 - 5:21 PM
Dan DeLuca

... The second song that presumably caused the Flyers to disavow Smith is more unequivocal in its presentation. It’s called “Pickaninny Heaven,” and Smith performed it in a 1933 movie, Hello Everybody.

The clip — the one I watched was recently taken off YouTube — shows Smith dedicating the song to “a lot of a little colored chillen listening in, in an orphanage in New York City,” then singing about “the place where the good little Pickanninies go” where “great big watermelons roll around, getting in your way.”

As the website of the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia points out, pickaninny or picaninny refers to caricatures with “bulging eyes, unkempt hair, red lips, and wide mouths into which they stuffed huge slices of watermelon. They were themselves tasty morsels for alligators" ...

But “Darkies” and “Pickaninny” aren’t the only examples of Smith being associated with regressive racial attitudes that are now viewed as grossly offensive, even if they were acceptable to a white audience at the time. In 1939, an advertisement for a Smith cookbook used a “Mammy Doll” caricature, depicting black women as eager-to-please servants ...

https://www.philly.com/entertainment/columnists/kate-smith-racist-songs-lyrics-got-bless-america-flyers-20190422.html