Thursday, January 17, 2008
Delegates seek harmony in state song bills
Acknowledging others' reluctances, lawmakers offered a handful of options for a new song.
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roanoke.com/politics
RICHMOND -- More than a decade after the General Assembly retired "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia" as the official state song, a Southwest Virginia lawmaker has proposed reviving it -- without the original lyrics that critics deemed offensive.
Del. Anne Crockett-Stark, R-Wytheville, has filed legislation (House Bill 565) that would make a revised version of "Carry Me Back" the official state song. Legislators banished the original version to the history books in 1997 because of lyrics such as "darkey" and "massa" that glorify slavery.
Crockett-Stark said a group of alumni from the old Pearisburg High School in Giles County came up with the idea and wrote new lyrics to replace offensive passages that date to Reconstruction.
"They started their reunion with that song," Crockett-Stark said. "They took out what they thought was offensive."
Among other things, the revised version replaces the line "There's where this old darkey's heart am long'd to go" with, "There's where my heart shall always long to go."
Crockett-Stark said she sponsored the bill at the group's request, but does not want the proposal to become a source of friction. She said she is sensitive to the racial connotations that led lawmakers to retire the original song.
"I want a state song that is inoffensive," said Crockett-Stark, who last year sponsored a bill to designate a song called "Virginia" by Lester Earl Sears as state anthem.
Lawmakers have rejected previous efforts to craft new lyrics for "Carry Me Back", which originally was written from the viewpoint of a freed slave. New lyrics can't mask the song's origins, critics said.
"If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck," said Del. Dwight Jones, D-Richmond, the chairman of the General Assembly's Legislative Black Caucus.
Del. Onzlee Ware, D-Roanoke, said Crockett-Stark has good intentions. Ware said he can't criticize "what they deem to be their heritage and culture and expect them to honor my heritage and culture."
It is unlikely that Crockett-Stark's bill will generate much debate, because the House Rules Committee has consistently blocked state song bills from reaching the House floor for a vote. Despite the committee's reluctance to push the issue, two legislators have joined Crockett-Stark in filing state song bills this year. Both lawmakers submitted songs written by New River Valley residents.
Del. Dave Nutter, R-Christiansburg, is backing a song called "Virginia: Where Heaven Touches Earth" by Leslie Gail Brooks and Ray Roberts of Blacksburg. The song was inspired by a poem Roberts spotted on a 1927 map of Blacksburg, he said. Brooks, his wife, has recorded a version of the song and performed it with their 8-year-old daughter Lauren.
"The lyrics convey the beauty of the state and the history that we have," said Brooks, a professional singer and songwriter who has recorded nine albums.
The song, according to Nutter's House Bill 988, includes the passage, "Virginia, our nation's place of birth; Climb her mountains, walk her trails; Sail her shores and ride her rails."
Del. Dan Bowling, D-Tazewell County, is sponsoring House Bill 1418 promoting "Cradle of Liberty" by Blacksburg resident Thomas DeBusk. Bowling pitched the same legislation last year, but the Rules Committee shelved the bill.
Roberts said he hopes lawmakers overcome their reluctance to adopt a new state song, but understands their apprehension.
"The reason is they're lawmakers and we're songwriters and they don't like to go out of their area of expertise," he said.
Asked if the state needs an official song, Brooks said: "Absolutely. It's a sense of pride."
