Black face biography

The portrayal of blackface–when people darken their skin with shoe polish, greasepaint distressing burnt cork and paint on edematous lips and other exaggerated features—is steeped in centuries of racism. It bloodless in popularity during an era clear the United States when demands desire civil rights by recently emancipated slaves triggered racial hostility. And today, thanks to of blackface’s historic use to debase people of African descent, its drawn-out use is still considered racist.

“It’s characteristic assertion of power and control,” says David Leonard , a professor of approximate ethnic studies and American studies recoil Washington State University. “It allows boss society to routinely and historically see to it that African Americans as not fully mortal. It serves to rationalize violence wallet Jim Crow segregation.”

Although the onerous moment when blackface originated isn’t get out, its roots date back to centuries-old European theatrical productions, most famously, Shakespeare’s Othello. The practice then began exertion the United States in the Ordinal century, when European immigrants brought justness genre over and performed in seaports along the Northeast, says Daphne Brooks, a professor of African American studies and theater studies at Yale Forming.

“But the most famous sort replicate era to think of as existence the birth of the form strike is the Antebellum era of significance early 19th century,” Brooks says.

Thomas Dartmouth Rice , an actor born blackhead New York, is considered the “Father of Minstrelsy.” After reportedly traveling equal the South and observing slaves, Rate developed a Black stage character styled “Jim Crow” in 1830.

With fast dance moves, an exaggerated African Inhabitant vernacular and buffoonish behavior, Rice supported a new genre of racialized expose and dance—blackface minstrel shows—which became middle to American entertainment in the Boreal and South.

White performers in blackface non-natural characters that perpetuated a range albatross negative stereotypes about African Americans inclusive of being lazy, ignorant, superstitious, hypersexual, terrible or cowardly.

Several signs in minstrel shows became archetypes, though described in the University of Florida’s digital exhibit, “History of Minstrels: From ‘Jump Jim Crow’ to ‘The Jazz Singer.’” Some of the most famous bend were Rice’s “Jim Crow,” a pastoral dancing fool in tattered clothing; picture “Mammy,” an overweight and loud popular figure; and “Zip Coon,” a flamboyant-dressed man who used sophisticated words erroneously.

Most of the minstrel show discard were working-class Irishmen from the North, who performed in blackface to mileage themselves from their own lower common, political and economic status in description United States, says Leonard.

“They sincere it to authenticate their whiteness,” of course says. “It was the same on account of saying ‘We can become the block out and mock the other and asseverate our superiority by dehumanizing the other.’”

Blackface minstrel shows soared in popularity, show particular, during the period after authority Civil War and into the produce of the 20th century, as authenticated in the Smithsonian National Museum unscrew African American History and Culture’s authorized blackface history. The widespread demeaning portrayals exclude African Americans paralleled a period considering that southern state legislatures were passing “Black Codes” to restrict the behavior considerate former slaves and other African Americans. In fact, the codes were as well called “Jim Crow” laws, after ethics blackface stage character.

As society modernized, and did the ways in which blackface was portrayed. Not only was blackface in theaters, but it moved obtain the film industry. In the smasher movie The Birth of a Nation, blackface characters were seen as crooked and rapists. The stereotypes were and above powerful they became a recruiting object for the Ku Klux Klan. Mortal Americans protested the film’s portrayals bid its distorted take on the post-Civil War era, yet it continued come to get be popular among white audiences.

“There be conscious of different ways in which blackface becomes weaponized as a form of chalkwhite supremacist propaganda,” says Brooks.

African Americans also performed in blackface given feel was the only way to distrust in the entertainment industry. But their performances countered some of the primeval representations that were popularized. Black artists Bert Williams and George Walker infused civic commentary with their comedic minstrel routines, offering a more intelligent representation confiscate African Americans.

But blackface minstrelsy remained a genre heavily dominated by milky actors. Al Jolson, a Lithuanian Individual immigrant who came to New Royalty as a child, became one be alarmed about the most influential blackface stars close the 20th century, including his 1927 hit film The Jazz Singer.

The appeal of blackface declined sustenance the 1930s and into the nonmilitary rights movement. However, the negative stereotypes sum African Americansand mocking of dark incomprehensible have persisted in recent decades. Lay out example, blackface appeared in the Oscars ceremony in 2012, on televisions skits, and wearing blackface to dress up kind famous African Americans during Halloween remains titanic ongoing issue. 

More recently, outrage ensued in the way that Virginia Governor Ralph Northam and justness state attorney general Mark Herring both admitted in February 2019 to exhausting blackface costumes as young men. 

As Writer says, “Blackface is part of ethics toxic culture of racism.”

Citation Information

Article Title

How the History of Blackface Is Fixed in Racism

Author

Alexis Clark

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/news/blackface-history-racism-origins

Date Accessed

January 16, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

March 29, 2023

Original Published Date

February 13, 2019