[ the following text is from www.virginiastatesong.com ] -
"James Bland was born in 1854. He was a Black entertainer and composer, born in Flushing, New York.
He was one of the best-known Black composers for the theatrical entertainment called the minstrel show.
Bland was educated in Washington, D. C., where he graduated from Howard University in 1873. He went on to become a performer in minstrel shows, achieving his greatest success in Britain between 1882 and 1901.
James Bland composed more than 700 songs, mostly for minstrel shows, among them "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny," chosen in 1940 as the state song of Virginia, "In the Evening by the Moonlight," and "Oh, Dem Golden Slippers." He spent the latter years of his life in poverty and obscurity, and died in 1911 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.*"
None of which, I can assure you, Steven Thrasher is remotely aware of.
He may be educated. But he is ignorant.