What Political Agenda Gave Rise to the Early Popularity of Minstrel Shows

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 later on a slave. He named the character Jim Crow. Rice darkened his face up, acted like a buffoon, and spoke with an exaggerated and distorted false of African American Vernacular English. In his Jim Crow persona, he also sang "Negro ditties" such as "Leap Jim Crow." Rice was not the first white comic to perform in greasepaint, but he was the almost popular of his fourth dimension, touring both the United States and England. As a result of Rice's success, "Jim Crow" became a mutual stage persona for white comedians' greasepaint portrayals of African Americans.	Jim Crow and Segregation (What was Jim Crow?) Afterward the American Ceremonious War (1861-1865), nearly southern states and, later on, edge states passed laws that denied blacks basic human rights. It is not clear how, merely the minstrel grapheme'due south proper name "Jim Crow" became a kind of shorthand for the laws, customs and etiquette that segregated and demeaned African Americans primarily from the 1870s to the 1960s.	Father of Minstrelsy Minstrel shows were popular musical stage shows from the 1830s to the early on 1900s. The performers, their faces artificially blackened, played the roles of ignorant, lazy, joyous blacks. Audiences roared with laughter. Thomas Dartmouth Rice is known equally the Male parent of Minstrelsy. A brusk video showing images of Thomas Rice as "Jim Crow," minstrel inspired toys, and clips from minstrel performances. Video features the "Bound Jim Crow" melody.
Blackening Upward When performing every bit minstrels, white performers used burnt cork and greasepaint or shoe shine to darken their peel and ruddy or white makeup to exaggerate their lips. They also wore woolly wigs and ragged apparel to imitate and ridicule African Americans. Ironically, past the 1840s, even some black entertainers were darkening their already nighttime skin and performing in blackface as minstrels. Hollywood has a long list of actors and actresses who appeared in films whether as blackface characters or with greasepaint characters. Actors like Bing Crosby, Milton Berle, Al Jolson, Edie Cantor, Fred Astaire, Martha Mears, Shirley Temple, Judy Garland, Ronald Reagan and Bugs Bunny, all gave their back up to "Blackening upwardly" in films.	Popularity of Minstrel Shows With the popularization of radio and motion pictures in the 1920s, professional minstrel shows lost much of their national following. All the same, apprentice minstrel shows continued in local theaters, community centers, high schools, and churches equally tardily as the 1960s. The stage was not the only identify where caricatures of African Americans were on display. The graphic art on Minstrel Show sheet music and posters were also venues to display highly caricatured images. These images set the tone for the ridicule that ensued, at the expense of African Americans, at minstrel shows .	An American Caste System Jim Crow refers to the racial hierarchy that divers American life through a set of laws and practices which operated primarily, but not exclusively, in southern and border states between 1877 and the mid-1960s. This bureaucracy, with whites at the top and blacks at the bottom, was supported by millions of everyday objects and images. Louisiana literacy test. Mississippi literacy test. Alabama literacy test.
Everyday Segregation During the Jim Crow menses, a black person might brainstorm a bus or train ride nigh the front, but each fourth dimension a white passenger boarded the African American passenger had to movement back a row. An added indignity was that black passengers were often the ones forced to bear and re-position the segregation sign. This "For Colored Patrons Only" sign was taken past a white adult female from Michigan who was a company in Louisiana in the 1920s. She removed the sign because both the sign and segregation offended her. During the Jim Crow period, a blackness person might begin a bus or railroad train ride near the front, but each time a white passenger boarded the African American passenger had to move back a row. An added indignity was that black passengers were oftentimes the ones forced to carry and re-position the segregation sign.	Segregated Water Fountains Segregated water fountains were common during the Jim Crow period. The supporters of racial segregation argued that if blacks and whites shared public facilities-in this case water fountains-it would promote social equality, which would, in plow, lead to the destruction of American civilization.	Segregation Was Pervasive During the Jim Crow period there were divide hospitals for blacks and whites, split up prisons, divide public and private schools, separate churches, separate cemeteries, separate public restrooms, and divide public accommodations. In most instances, the black facilities were grossly inferior-older, smaller, less-well-kept, and less conveniently located. In other cases, there were no black facilities-no Colored public restroom, no public beach, and no place to sit down or eat. List of Jim Crow Laws The segregation laws written on this wall are a sample of the thousands of laws that existed during the Jim Crow menstruum. This list was compiled by the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site Interpretive Staff.

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Source: https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/origins.htm

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