Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/02/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]John Edwin Mason wrote: About a week ago, I was rummaging through the Farm Security Administration online archive (at the Library of Congress) and came across an eerie Marion Post Wolcott photo of a group of white schoolkids in blackface makeup, preparing for a school festival. Not surprisingly, that got me rummaging some more. Turns out that there is quite a bit of blackface in the archive. http://johnedwinmason.typepad.com/john_edwin_mason_photogra/2010/02/fsa-blackface-minstrels.html ============================================================================= John -- Thanks for posting. Your blog is fascinating. I've read some history of blackface and minstrelsy (one of my degrees is in American Studies) and I agree that it's a somewhat complex and layered phenomenon that tends to get oversimplified because it seems so impossibly wrong to modern eyes. I can remember as a white child in Louisiana participating in blackface productions at school and church in the 1940s. Shocking to think about today but it's true. That Wolcott photo was just a year before I was born. As you put it so well in your blog, it's important to remember some things we would prefer to forget. -- Phil Swango 307 Aliso Dr SE Albuquerque, NM 87108 505-262-4085