'Eyes Of Texas' Song Stays At UT Amid Racial Controversy

AUSTIN, TX — The University of Texas Longhorn marching band will continue to play the school's "Eyes of Texas" alma mater at home football games and other events after a look into the song's origin and a school committee determining it is "not overtly racist."

The school did decide to create a separate marching band this week for student musicians who object to playing the song, which the school report did determine was debuted in "a racist setting," KXAN and others have reported.

Controversy arose around the origin of the song in 2020 as a stronger movement to address systemic racism went widespread, the school said in its report released in March. The "Eyes of Texas" in particular was debuted "in a minstrel show and therefore likely by student singers wearing 'blackface,'" the report said.

The "Eyes of Texas" song goes to the melody of the tune "I've Been Working on the Railroad," which constituted a racist trope, according to the report titled "The Eyes of Texas History Committee Report."

There was also the concern that the phrase "The eyes of Texas are upon you" might have been taken from Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, whose famous phrase was "the eyes of the South are upon you" and that other lyrics made references to slavery.

But that type of setting was "common" at the time, the report continued, and the song "had no racist intent in that it was intended to parody the famous phrases of the university president."

That wasn't the takeaway for a number of band members last fall, as Longhorn Band Director Scott Hanna said an internal survey in October showed there weren't enough to perform the alma mater at football games, according to KXAN.

Members of the school committee that authored the report have said none of the song's lyrics were directed at Black students because "there weren't any" at the time, with one committee member going as far as saying she was surprised to find the song wasn't racist at all.

The new band that won't be required to play the song will be created by the fall of 2022, with incoming seniors for the 2021-22 school year having the option to opt out of the band without the loss of scholarships.