When the Mummers gather to strut up Broad Street on New Year’s Day, you can be sure that you will hear a particular song multiple times as each string band passes by. “Oh Dem Golden Slippers” is easily recognized by legions of Mummers fans, but not as many would know the origins of the tune, its composer, or its ties to Philadelphia.

The song was written by James A. Bland in 1879. He was born on October 22, 1854 in Flushing, Long Island and was descended from freemen on both sides of his family. His father, Allen Bland, graduated from Wilberforce University as one of the first college-educated African Americans in the United States. During James’ early childhood, the family lived in Philadelphia, where legend has it, he became infatuated with music upon hearing an elderly Black man playing the banjo.

When Bland was in his teens, the family relocated to Washington, D.C. where his father worked in the U.S. Patent Office and he enrolled in Howard University. At that time, the school’s strict rules forbade students to attend any sort of entertainment event. Bland would sneak away to see minstrel shows, eventually leaving the school in 1873 without graduating and ultimately joining Callender’s Original Georgia Minstrels as a singer and banjo player.

Part of that troupe was purchased by J. H. Haverly in 1878 and renamed Haverly’s Colored Minstrels, so Bland may have performed in Philadelphia at the theater at 259 S. Broad Street that Haverly had built two years earlier. He had great success performing in England with that troupe, even appearing before Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales in 1881.

In addition to performing, Bland was a prolific composer, penning around 600 songs, yet only a few dozen were published under his name. In 1878 he wrote “Carry me back to old Virginny,” which became widely popular when white minstrel star George Primrose performed it.

“Oh Dem Golden Slippers” was published by Oliver Ditson and Company, a Boston publisher, with a Philadelphia branch headed by J. Edward Ditson as J. E. D. & Co. at 1712 Chestnut Street. It is thought to be a parody of a spiritual, “Golden Slippers,” popularized by the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

The tune “became the definitive Walkaround number,” according to authors David Jasen and Gene Jones, in their book Spreadin’ Rhythm Around: Black Popular Songwriters, 1880-1930. The walkaround began in the 1840s as a solo dance, but evolved into a competitive dance. The troupe would gather in a semi-circle and clap along to a fast tune while individuals or couples would take turns showing off some elaborate dance moves.

At the height of his popularity, Bland was earning about $10,000 a year, which was an enormous amount at that time. However, Bland was careless with money and soon became destitute. He lived mostly in Philadelphia as he traveled around the East Coast for performances. He died on May 5, 1911 of tuberculosis at age 57 and was buried in an unmarked grave in Merion Memorial Park in Bala Cynwyd.

It is possible that Bland may have witnessed the Mummers parade while he was living in Philadelphia. After a long history of individual mummers’ groups cavorting in various neighborhoods, often accompanied by rifle shooting into the air to mark the new year, the City of Philadelphia established a coordinated parade in 1901.

Not long after that, Charles Dumont, the captain of the Dumont String Band, made a suggestion in a rehearsal that would permanently alter the repertoire of the Mummers. “It was sometime prior to 1910 that Charles Dumont said, ‘let’s try this song,’ and everyone started dancing,” explained Mark Montanaro, curator of the Mummers Museum and former Comic Division performer. “So, we’ve been using it ever since.”

After Bland’s death, a few performers kept his music alive, including classical soprano Alma Gluck, who recorded “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny,” and W.C. Handy, who programmed a few of Bland’s songs in a Carnegie Hall concert in 1928. “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny” was the state song of Virginia from 1940 to 1998, and today is designated as the emeritus state song.

In 1946, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) raised funds to erect a memorial tombstone for Bland at Merion Memorial Park with financial support from the state of Virginia. The epitaph doesn’t mention “Oh Dem Golden Slippers,” but refers instead to his more popular “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny.” The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission installed a historical marker for Bland in 1961 at the cemetery entrance.

In 1948, the Lions Clubs of Virginia established the Bland Music Scholarships Program to assist educational opportunities for Virginia youth, awarding over $25,000 annually. James A. Bland was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

In 2025, the Philadelphia Mummers Parade will feature 14 string bands, three comic clubs, 10 wench brigades, and one fancy club. Also on New Year’s Day, 10 fancy brigades will perform two shows at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The one-and-a-half-mile parade route starts at 9:00 a.m. at 17th and Market Streets, winds around City Hall, and continues down South Broad Street to Washington Avenue, with performance stops at Sansom, Pine, and Carpenter Streets. There will be more than a few renditions of James A. Bland’s “Oh Dem Golden Slippers” heard along the way.

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