Publication Date
2024
Document Type
Book
Description
Minstrel shows were once among the most popular forms of entertainment in America. These performances featured songs, dances, and comic routines--typically performed by white actors in blackface--that demeaned African Americans by portraying them as lazy, unintelligent or buffoonish. While scholars have written volumes about professional minstrel shows in the 19th century and the subsequent use of blackface in movies, amateur minstrel shows have largely been forgotten. This project calls attention to the proliferation of amateur minstrel performances put on in Broome County between roughly 1910 and 1960 by workers’ groups, local clubs, fraternal organizations, schools, and other community-based groups. Drawing primarily on historical newspapers, I examine the organizations involved in producing these shows, the way shows changed, the reasons they remained popular for decades, and the eventual emergence of protests against them.
Files
Download Full Text (426 KB)
Recommended Citation
Goldstein, Blake, "Perpetuating Racist Stereotypes: The Rise of Amateur Minstrel Shows in Broome County, 1910-1960" (2024). Research Days Posters 2024. 77.
https://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_2024/77