We have a statue of Stephen Foster and Old Black Joe outside the Oakland branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Poor old Joe is barefoot, and occasionally finds himself wearing a sock or with painted toenails. Across the street is the Stephen Foster memorial theater at the University of Pittsburgh.
I was at a small, largely white, college in Kentucky, and our choir was doing a selection of Foster songs. The baritone who was to sing "My Old Kentucky Home" solo, began, "The sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home, 'tis summer the darkies---young folks are gay". He sang Young folks at the concert. It's rather like when someone subistitutes for the n-word in the Mikado. (It turns up twice in the show. Referring to blackface performers, not Africans.)