Hey radio stations, time to retire “Sweet Home Alabama”

Author’s photo of Bisa Butler’s “Four Little Girls, September 15, 1963” (2018-Cotton, silk, and lace; appliqued and quilted) recently on display as part of a larger show of Butler’s work at the Art Institute of Chicago.

“In Birmingham, they love the governor … Now we all did what we could do.”
- “Sweet Home Alabama”

Driving home, I was listening to a Boomer-era rock station, and the iconic guitar lick signaling the introduction of “Sweet Home Alabama” blared through the car speaker. It was the summer of 2020. Black Lives Matter protests were taking place across cities and towns in all 50 states and worldwide demanding justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, all victims of police and racist brutality.

My mind instantly went to the racist history of the song, and I heard the lyrics in a profoundly different way. In particular, the line about Birmingham and the governor made my blood boil.

“In Birmingham, they love the governor … Now we all did what we could do.”

Listening to those lines makes me want to puke. Anybody with a conscience and a knowledge of history can’t help but think how the lyrics trivialize the racist violence in Birmingham during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s and the brutal response to the Civil Rights Movement by the governor of Alabama and other officials.

In Birmingham, the Ku Klux Klan bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church, killing four Black girls on Sept. 15, 1963, a date that should be known (but isn’t) by all…