US

Composer Stephen Foster In Crosshairs Of Statue Purge

REUTERS/Stephen Spillman

David Krayden Ottawa Bureau Chief
Font Size:

American composer Stephen Foster is the latest target of those wanting to ban statues they deem racially insensitive.

As Fox News reports, a statue of Foster in his hometown of Pittsburgh is under attack by some locals because it features the 19th century composer sitting above a barefoot slave playing the banjo.

Foster wrote such standards “Oh! Susana,” and “Old Black Joe” that celebrated his perception of the unhurried Southern lifestyle. He is known as “America’s first composer” and was considered a sort of musical poet laureate in his lifetime.

The Pittsburgh monument was dedicated in 1900 and today can be found in close proximity to the Stephen Foster Memorial, housed at the University of Pittsburgh.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the statue has generated controversy in the past over its alleged “appropriation of black culture.”

Some city residents complained at a recent meeting of art commission.

“It just doesn’t really portray something that as a community we should be supporting,” Abigail Benkovich told Fox News, though she noted that she does appreciate that the statue belongs to another time.

But some residents question the motivation for removing Foster from his native Pittsburgh. “It’s been that way for a long time,” Charles Bose told Fox. “It’s part of history, and that’s why it should be left alone.”

Benkovich offered a third option: “Maybe it should come with a description,” she told Fox news.

The mayor of steel town says he is between a rock and hard place over the issue.

“Deciding what happens to sculptures is an uncomfortable position for a politician to be in,” Mayor William Peduto said in a statement to Fox News. “Whatever I do will be based on findings by the experts on the Art Commission, and upon the history of the statue, the history of Stephen Foster, where we are today as a culture, and the impact of the art itself on our city.”

Other residents are wondering why some Americans have suddenly become so obsessed with removing statues across the country when there are so many other things to talk about.

“I just think we need to tackle some bigger issues first,” Ben Snyder noted to Fox.

>Follow David on Twitter

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel