Open letter to the Philadelphia Flyers from Kate Smith

Hello, everybody!

They say you get only one chance to make a good first impression.

But you have unlimited chances to correct a mistake.

I’m humbly asking you to correct the mistake you made about me.

In 2019, I believe the Philadelphia Flyers management panicked and banned their good-luck charm — me — on the tissue-thin accusation that I was  “racist.”

Even though I died in 1986, fellas, that hurt. How would you feel to be called a racist and turned into an outcast? Betrayed and canceled by your friends.

What was the evidence against me?

Ninety years earlier I sang two songs — two out of 3,000 I recorded — that were racist. I admit it now, although I didn’t see it then. The songs were “That’s Why Darkies Were Born,” and “Pickaninny Heaven.”

After someone emailed the New York Yankees that I had recorded the songs, the Yankees immediately banned my 1939 rendition of “God Bless America” that had been played during the 7th inning stretch, starting after 9/11. Using my song that way gave this country girl a thrill because everyone knows how patriotic I was, how I loved our great country.

Almost immediately, the Flyers overreacted, if you don’t mind me saying so, and my team canceled my version of “God Bless America.” More shamefully, after a “review,” they said, the statue of me that was placed outside the Spectrum in 1989 was wrapped in ugly black tarp, and then carted away, as if I were some traitorous Confederate general. It was humiliating.

Me, who had been given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1982 by President Ronald Reagan, for my charitable, wartime fund-raising, and performing activities. Canceled. Shunned. Excommunicated.

Neither the Yankees nor the Flyers were interested in hearing a defense of who many called the First Lady of Radio. I was convicted by an accusation alone.

Both teams made mandatory remarks, with the Flyers saying hockey was for “everyone” and the Yankees stating it takes “social, racial, and cultural insensitivity very seriously.”

I’m not looking for a fight here, but the Yankees played for 54 years before hiring its first African-American player, Elston Howard. That was eight years after the Brooklyn Dodgers broke the racist color line by hiring Jackie Robinson.  Twelve other teams signed Black players before the Bronx Bombers got around to it.

I’m sure the Yankees would complain that it isn’t fair to judge them today by their past. But isn’t that exactly what they did to me?

In a very nice  April 30, 2019 open letter to me, Inquirer Flyers beat writer Sam Carchidi reported that the team said the songs I had recorded “are incompatible with the values of our organization.” 

Then Carchidi opened the media guide and looked at photos of 114 people who were high level employees. 

Every single one was white as snow, he reported.

Did I —  or anyone else — call the Flyers racist? No. 

The Yankees and the Flyers convicted me without a fair trial. 

I am asking the new Flyers leadership to now listen to the defense. 

Why now? At its 119th banquet on Jan. 17, the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Flyers’ 1974 Stanley Cup victory. I was a spiritual member of that team, and appeared in person to sing “God Bless America” before the title-clinching Game 6 against Boston. Yet the sports writers dared not mention my name, nor even play my song.
I’m not bragging when I tell you that when the Flyers played my song your record was 100 wins, 31 losses, 5 ties, including 3-1-0 when I sang it live at the Spectrum.

Just a few weeks ago, the Flyers organized a Legacy Tribute to original owner Ed Snider. His son Craig believes that if he were alive when these accusations were made, I would at least have been presumed innocent until proven guilty of the serious charge of racism. Any credible inquiry into my life and work, had it been undertaken, would reveal the truth—that my public and private life were dedicated to promoting the shared American values of respect and tolerance for all people—regardless of race, religion or creed.

This would be the perfect time to correct the mistake, before the 50th anniversary of their second championship, in which many believed I played a small part.

I acknowledge the two songs appear to be racist. I also acknowledge my error in endorsing a “Mammy” style doll, along the lines of Aunt Jemima, in 1939. It was done out of ignorance, not hate. 

That was the entire catalog of racial offenses. One doll, two songs out of a repertoire of 3,000. If you get out your calculator, you’ll see that is 0.0666666667% of my work. 

For perspective, sports columnist Jeff Jacobs, who once covered the Flyers, wrote that African-American singer and civil rights activist Paul Robeson also recorded “Why Darkies Were Born,” considered by many to be a satire on racism. 

In addition to outrage from the fans, several journalists wrote essays of protest, but the Flyers weren’t going to reverse themselves.

Not then, but it is never too late to correct a mistake.

And here is a good reason to reverse the decision.

I was not a racist. In fact, I believe by promoting Black talent,  I was actually anti-racist.

I’m uncomfortable saying all that, but no one else has.

My proof is the long list of African-American artists I booked for both my very popular radio and then TV shows, even while racism was a strong force in America.

The Kate Smith Commemorative Society has the logs of performers and dates they appeared. Some played multiple dates.

Nobody else had a larger audience at that time, and nobody promoted African-American artists more than I did.

Guest African-American artists on radio 

Molasses ‘n’ January  (comics) 12/24/34. 

Honeyboy and Sassafras (comics) 9/17/36. 

Blackie Shackner (harmonica) 1/6/38. 

Bill Robinson (dancer) 3/2/39.

Ethel Waters (dramatic reading) 12/6/40.

Count Basie (orchestra) 6/27/41; 11/18/43; 3/24/44; 4/14/44; 4/21/44; 4/28/44; 5/5/44; 5/19/44; 5/26/44; 12/3/44; 1/14/45; 1/25/45; 2/11/45; 5/6/45; 2/1/46; 2/8/46; 6/14/46.

Delta Rhythm Boys (vocal) 12/5/41; 3/10/44.

Anonymous Black Soloist (vocal) 6/26/44.

Kate & Juanita Hall Chorus 12/4/42.

Deep River Boys (vocal) 10/22/43; 11/5/43; 11/12/43; 1/21/44.

Ink Spots (vocal) 10/8/44; 3/25/45.

Duke Ellington Band 9/14/45.

Nat King Cole (vocal) 11/2/45.

Lionel Hampton (xylophone) 12/28/45. 

Guest African-American artists on TV

The Meadowlarks (vocal) 11/2/50.

Louis Armstrong 11/8/50.

The Hotshots (tap dance) 11/21/50.

The Dunhills (tap dancers) 1/24/51; 4/25/51; 5/21/51; 11/8/51; 6/25/52; 12/9/52; 4/24/53; 1/11/54.

Stump & Stumpy (tap dance) 2/6/51.

Slam Stewart Trio (vocals) 2/7/51.

Buck & Bubbles (song and dance) 3/31/51; 10/24/51.

Herman Chittison Trio (vocal) 4/5/51.

Teddy Hale (bebop dance) 4/9/51; 9/25/61.

Count Basie Band 5/24/51; 2/1/60.

Delta Rhythm Boys (vocals) 6/8/51; 12/4/51; 11/18/52.

Duke Ellington Orchestra 6/14/51.

Billy Williams Quartet (vocal) 10/11/51.

The Charioteers (vocal quartet) 11/1/51; 4/17/52; 9/18/52; 10/7/53; 2/24/54.

George Kirby (comedian) 11/20/51; 12/15/52.

Harry Belafonte  (folk) 12/5/51; 3/25/52.

The 4 Step Brothers (tap dance) 12/20/51; 12/19/52; 4/23/52; 1/23/53.

Deep River Boys (vocal) 12/28/51; 4/10/52; 1/7/53; 1/23/53; 1/28/53; 2/3/53; 2/10/53; 3/10/53; 4/29/53; 11/3/53; 1/11/54.

Clark Brothers (tap dance) 1/7/52; 5/16/52; 6/4/52; 12/3/52.

Derby Wilson (tap dance) 1/17/52.

Golden Gate Quartet (vocal) 2/5/52; 4/2/52; 10/10/52; 12/14/53.

Day, Dawn, Dusk (vocal) 2/28/52.

Leontyne Price (opera) 3/28/52.

Bunny Briggs (tap dance) 5/26/52; 11/21/52.

Josephine Baker (vocal, dance) 10/31/51.

Kay Thompson & William Brown (song and dance) 12/5/51.

Honi Coles & Chollie Atkins (tap dance) 9/9/52; 11/23/53.

The Ink Spots (vocal) 10/29/52.

Sugar Ray Robinson (boxer) 12/17/52.

Nicholas Brothers (tap dance) 2/13/53.

Billy Taylor Trio (jazz) 3/5/53; 10/20/55.

Cole & Atkins (tap dance) 3/16/53.

Eddie Heywood Trio (jazz) 3/27/53; 6/1/53; 4/19/54; 5/25/60.

Nat King Cole (vocal) 3/30/53.

King Odom Quartet (vocal) 4/2/53; 5/26/53; 9/28/53.

Blackburn Twins (song, dance) 5/20/53.

Unnamed Black couple (vocal) 10/19/53.

(This log was compiled by Richard K. Hayes, and maintained by Cynthia Hoffman.)

The TV list is considerably longer than the radio, and on TV there’s no question about the race of the performers. I think that’s an awfully long list of Black talent to be hired by someone who is called a racist.

But there’s more. There’s my historic 1945 address, that the Inquirer’s John Timpane called an impassioned attack on bigotry and racism, with me calling them “the diseases that eat away the fibers of peace” as millions listened. Here is his April 25, 2019 opinion piece.

He printed some of what I said:

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.

Some 20,000 people requested printed copies, and newspapers across the nation ran passages as World War II drew to a conclusion. 

Does that sound like it was written by a racist? 

“Are the songs racist? Of course they are,” Timpane was told by Susan J. Douglas, a professor of communication studies at the University of Michigan and author of Listening: Radio and the American Imagination. 

But using today’s standards to judge the past is unfair, as in the example I gave about the Yankees. Such unfair judgment has a name. It is called presentism.

 “People don’t think about the historical context, and they don’t think about nuance at all. Without wishing to defend or advocate for Kate Smith, I’d point out that there’s a huge difference between the early 1930s and 1945,” said Douglas.

I know this sounds like bragging, but it is the truth. I won countless awards from civic, religious, social, patriotic, and ethnic groups during my 50-plus career, capped by the Medal of Freedom, which was one of the proudest moments of my life.

That is my defense. I would be happy if you put it to a jury — your fan base. Ask them if they want the Kate Smith statue returned, along with a plaque explaining the controversy, as was done with the George Washington house on Independence Mall, which once housed slaves.

It’s never too late to correct a mistake. It could help you in your efforts to reclaim all of the Flyers’ historic identity.

Thanks for listenin.’ 

Kate Smith