Florida Senate approves Old Folks as state song
- After updating its lyrics to eliminate offensive words like "darkies," the Florida Senate on Thursday voted to make "Old Folks At Home" the official state song and adopted a more modern tune written by a Broward music teacher as the state anthem.
The proposed anthem, "Florida, Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky," was the winner of a statewide contest sponsored by the Florida Music Educators Association last year to find a replacement to the 1851 tune written by Stephen Foster.
Giving both tunes an official designation was a compromise orchestrated by supporters of Foster's ode to plantation life, including members of the Legislature's Black Caucus, who wanted the more modern tune penned by Jan Hinton, of Pompano Beach who teaches at Pine Crest School.
"As they say, the art of politics is the art of give and take, the art of compromise ... We replace the words, not the tune," said Senate Rules Chairman Jim King, R-Jacksonville.
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The proposed anthem, "Florida, Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky," was the winner of a statewide contest sponsored by the Florida Music Educators Association last year to find a replacement to the 1851 tune written by Stephen Foster.
Giving both tunes an official designation was a compromise orchestrated by supporters of Foster's ode to plantation life, including members of the Legislature's Black Caucus, who wanted the more modern tune penned by Jan Hinton, of Pompano Beach who teaches at Pine Crest School.
"As they say, the art of politics is the art of give and take, the art of compromise ... We replace the words, not the tune," said Senate Rules Chairman Jim King, R-Jacksonville.