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First she was covered up. Now, apparently she is gone. The bronze statue of the late singer Kate Smith has apparently been removed from outside Xfinity Live! as the Flyers looked into racist lyrics she sang. Talk radio host Tony Bruno tweeted around 9:30 this morning that the statue was gone and posted video.

The Yankees have decided to no longer run Kate Smith’s version of “God Bless America” during their seventh-inning stretch because of Smith’s affiliation with songs that carried racist lyrics. Most famously, Smith sang a 1931 song, “That’s Why Darkies Were Born,” which opened: “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.” The song, which has been called a satirical take on racism, was a big hit for Smith, and also was recorded by Paul Robeson. When the Yankees last month became aware...

The Flyers are scrubbing connections with famed singer Kate Smith as the team investigates racist lyrics in several of her songs. That includes covering a bronze statue of Smith that stands outside Xfinity Live! and removing her iconic recording of “God Bless America” from their playlist. “We have recently become aware that several songs performed by Kate Smith contain offensive lyrics that do not reflect our values as an organization,” the Flyers said in a statement. "As we continue to look into this serious matter, we are removing Kate Smith’s recording of 'God Bless America’ from our library and covering...

The Yankees have taken a stand against racism for their seventh-inning stretch. For 18 years, Yankee Stadium regularly used Kate Smith’s 1939 recording of “God Bless America” in the middle of the seventh inning. But they ditched it altogether this season, replacing Smith’s rendition with different versions of the song. Why? As the Daily News learned, the Yankee were made aware of Smith’s history of potential racism.

As singers, Kate Smith and Paul Robeson have something in common. They each recorded the song, “That’s Why Darkies Were Born.” At NJ.com, Paul Mulshine accurately describes the song as “written from a standpoint of sympathy for Southern blacks,” which helps explains why Robeson, a black communist, sang the song as well. To read the lyrics is to understand how perverse is an out-of-nowhere attack on the beloved Ms. Smith. “Someone had to fight the Devil/ Shout about Gabriel’s Horn/ Someone had to stoke the train/ That would bring God’s children to green pastures/ That’s why darkies were born.” Substitute...

Kate Smith, famous for “God Bless America,” has become the latest American to be jammed down the memory hole. The singer, who died in 1986 at age 79, sang the semi-national anthem, most famously at baseball games, especially Yankee Stadium, which began regularly playing the recording during the seventh-inning stretch after 9/11. It invariably elicited tears and a sense of unified purpose. But upon learning that Ms. Smith sang a song called “Pickaninny Heaven” and “That’s Why Darkies Were Born” in the early 1930s, the Yankees announced an end to the tradition, as did the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team, which...

We’ve clearly got it good as a nation. Economic growth is robust. Joblessness has never been lower. The stock market is roaring. We live in relative peace. There’s very little to complain about these days. Which is why we had to travel back to the 1930s to find a problem. Apparently, it’s Kate Smith. I moved to Philadelphia nearly a decade ago and attended my first Flyers game shortly after. The sold-out crowd was fired up. It was a great atmosphere. Then, the pre-game festivities began. The overhead scoreboard, center-ice played a grainy video of what appeared to me to...

Kate Smith’s rendition of “God Bless America” has been scrapped at Yankee Stadium, but Bronx Bomber fans are going to bat for her over allegations of racism. Smith’s niece, Suzy Andron, told The Post she is “honored” by the groundswell of support for the late singer among fans and media. Smith’s niece, Suzy Andron, told The Post she is “honored” by the groundswell of support for the late singer among fans and media. “Most are solidly behind the positive notion that this is a misunderstanding by a few people who took two or three of her songs [out of 3,000...

The long arm of the PC police has reached back to the ’30s and arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced the late singer Kate Smith. Smith, who popularized Irving Berlin’s song “God Bless America” and was a female pioneer in early television, recorded songs that today in hindsight are viewed as racist. An old friend, Harry Covert, writes to recall the early days of black-and-white TV when he (and I) watched Smith’s television program. Covert remembers one show interrupted by a news bulletin announcing the attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman by militant Puerto Rican activists. He notes that today’s Puerto Ricans...

"What I knew was what they were doing was wrong then, and it's wrong today," said [Rick] Monday. "I had a lot of friends who lost their lives protecting the rights and freedoms that flag represented. I'm not sure what I was thinking, except I was angry and I started to run after them. It is the way I was raised growing up in Santa Monica, [Calif.], and it was reinforced by my six years in the Marine Reserves," he said. Monday said the crowd suddenly began to sing "God Bless America."...(with video)

It was announced this week that both the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Flyers would stop using their traditional recorded version of Kate Smith singing “God Bless America” during their games. This happened after it surfaced that Smith had performed songs now considered racist during during her hey day in the 1930s. The Flyers, with whom Smith is more closely aligned as the good luck charm for their 1974 Stanley Cup run, even removed a statue of her from the Philadelphia sports complex. In a brilliant monologue, sports commentator Jason Whitlock broke down the absurdity of these moves. The...

WILDWOOD, N.J. (CBS) – While the Philadelphia Flyers will stop playing Kate Smith’s “God Bless America” at games following racism allegations, one Jersey Shore mayor said Monday he will continue to play her song on the boardwalk. Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano told The Dom Giordano Program on WPHT 1210 that Smith’s rendition of “God Bless America” will continue to be played on the boardwalk every morning. “I’m just a small-town mayor and I look at what’s happening to the world and it’s amazing how everyone wants to rewrite history, no one wants to allow history to be an educator to...

CNN)A year after her 1986 death, the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers erected a statue to honor renowned singer Kate Smith, whose rendition of "God Bless America" was played during home games for decades, including the 2018-2019 season. But on Sunday the Flyers announced they had removed the statue, saying the team had discovered some of her songs contained racist lyrics and sentiments that were "incompatible" with the organization's values.

This is a tricky one, but is worth examining: Yankees drop Kate Smith’s "God Bless America" after questions of possible racism arise https://t.co/mbDdQ5OrgT— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 19, 2019 From The Washington Post: The New York Yankees reportedly confirmed Thursday that they were no longer playing a Kate Smith version of “God Bless America” during the seventh inning of home games, after the team learned of a Depression-era song she’d recorded that raised questions of possible racism. Two songs cited by the New York Daily News, which broke the story, included “That’s Why Darkies Were Born,” a 1931 hit for...

The observable universe contains more than 100 billion galaxies. Our galaxy alone, popularly known as the Milky Way, has more than 100 billion stars. Does that make you yearn for those days of yesteryear when many followed the thought of Aristotle and Ptolemy: Five planets plus the sun and the moon circling Earth? Was it easier to evangelize before people thought of Earth as a little sphere circling a fifth-rate star on a minor galaxy’s periphery -- so why should God care about us? A century ago scientists of course knew the Earth moved, but many still thought we were...

Upon request, I [Starrgaizr] have collected links to many of the earliest threads from September 11, 2001 below. I reviewed threads from the very first FR report (http://www.freeRepublic.com/focus/fr/520255/posts) through thread number 520326. Feel free to add other significant threads, including photo archives. Bumping this thread periodically instead of the original threads will also avoid scaring people with the headlines. Bookmark this thread, and bump it from time to time when the nation and the press seems to forget why we need resolve in the face of evil. Forgive some of the early misinformation and broken photo links, and recall the...

He might be standing, but he’s having hard time singing. President Trump appeared to forget the lyrics to “God Bless America” during a White House event Tuesday meant to prove how patriotic he is. Trump was caught on video singing every other word to the national hymn as a military chorus boomed behind him. On three occasions, Trump gave up singing all together and let the uniform-clad men around him do the vocalizing. A White House spokesman did not return a request for comment from the Daily News. The last-minute “Celebration of America” event was put together after Trump cancelled...

...reported opposition to song Howard Bryant’s latest long-winded essay about racial division in professional sports contains remarks from an anonymous “high-ranking Red Sox official” about his desire for the team to stop playing "God Bless America" at Fenway Park. “Recently a high-ranking Red Sox official told me — nearly 17 years after the towers fell — that he really doesn’t know why the team still plays ‘God Bless America,’ but he knows this: The team would ‘get killed’ publicly if it was the first team to stop doing it,” Bryant writes. Despite the “high-ranking official’s” opposition to “God Bless America,”...

You’ve heard the statistics before: Americans have more guns per head than any nation on earth – along with gun violence rates that are dramatically higher than other rich, developed countries. But these big-picture facts can be misleading. Not every American is packing heat and gun violence is intensely concentrated in small neighbourhoods. Here’s a look at the dramatic concentration of America’s guns – and America’s violence:

Upon request, I have collected links to many of the earliest threads from September 11, 2001 below. I reviewed threads from the very first FR report (http://www.freeRepublic.com/focus/fr/520255/posts)through thread number 520326. Feel free to add other significant threads, including photo archives. Bumping this thread periodically instead of the original threads will also avoid scaring people with the headlines. Bookmark this thread, and bump it from time to time when the nation and the press seems to forget why we need resolve in the face of evil. Forgive some of the early misinformation and broken photo links, and recall the horror and ...