Extra Credit Questions

[L Verge]

I once did some research on blackface theater and minstrel shows and I think this was one character played by a white actor sometime in the 19th century (first half I think).

Absolutely correct, Eva, and the white actor who portrayed Jim Crow is considered by many to be the Father of Minstrelsy in the U.S.

"The Original Jim Crow (Who was Jim Crow?)

"Throughout the 1830s and '40s, the white entertainer Thomas Dartmouth Rice (1808-1860) performed a popular song-and-dance act supposedly modeled after a slave. He named the character Jim Crow. Rice darkened his face, acted like a buffoon, and spoke with an exaggerated and distorted imitation of African American Vernacular English. In his Jim Crow persona, he also sang "Negro ditties" such as "Jump Jim Crow."

"Rice was not the first white comic to perform in blackface, but he was the most popular of his time, touring both the United States and England. As a result of Rice's success, "Jim Crow" became a common stage persona for white comedians' blackface portrayals of African Americans."

I took the above from a website run by the Jim Crow Museum, a part of Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. Just google Jim Crow Museum for more information.

I especially like the primary mission statement of the museum posted below its name: USING OBJECTS OF INTOLERANCE TO TEACH TOLERANCE AND PROMOTE SOCIAL JUSTICE. Not one word of removing or destroying items of the past -- instead, promoting them as educational tools.