minstrel show

Minstrel shows emerged from European traditions of masking and carnival. But in the US it began in the 1830s, with working class white men dressing up as plantation slaves. These men imitate black musicals and dance forms combining savage parody of black Americans with genuine fondness for African American cultural forms. By the Civil War the minstrel show had become famous and respectable. By the 1840s the minstrel show had become one of the central events in the Democratic party.White performers would blacken their faces with burnt cork or greasepaint, dress in outlandish costumes, and then perform songs and skits that mocked African Americans. The minstrel had three stock characters that were among several that reappeared in minstrel shows throughout the nineteenth century Jim Crow was the stereotypical carefree slave, Mr. Tambo a joyous musician, and Zip Coon a free slave attempting to rise above his station.Before the Civil War black men could not appear in minstrel shows. But some of the black men would put on minstrel makeup and appearing as white men imitating black men. Later, in the twentieth century several of the most famous minstrels were actually black men who wore makeup for example Bert Williams, who performed in blackface in the 1920s for exampleThe first talkng picture The JazzSinger 1927 .Minstrel shows continued to be popular in the 1950s, and highschools, fraternities and local theater groups would often perform minstrel shows in blackface. It became unpopular as African Americans asserted more politcal power in the 1950s.

Minstrel show stayed popular until the 1970s, when blacks and whites agreed that it was racial against blacks and stopped it from showing on television.

workcited

http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/jackson/minstrel/minstrel.html

http://images.quickblogcast.com/5/7/6/6/1/226819-216675/MinistrelShow1.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MCYzb1vENQ&feature=related