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, your blog is excellent. There was a fascinating article (either in The New Yorker or, less likely but possible, The New York Reivew of Books, somewhere in the last decaide, on Steppin Fetchit, his career, political implications, the whole milieu of black entertainers and african americans in hollywood in the 30s and 40s. Both mags have complete searchable archives though many things are abstract only unless you pay for them -- so you should be able to find it. Vince P On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 8:39 PM, Phil Swango <pswango at att.net> wrote: > 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 > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >