Fireside Chat with Rhae Lynn Barnes | Darkology: Blackface and the American Way of Entertainment

• Sunday, April 12 @ 5:00 pm
• Lewes Public Library, Lewes, DE

The history of Blackface minstrel shows in the United States is shocking. Princeton historian Rhae Lynn Barnes has spent decades digging through archives and private collections to reveal the extraordinary extent to which the caricatured and dehumanizing depiction of formerly enslaved people was a staple of community entertainment for more than two centuries.

In the mid-19th century, blackface evolved from a niche burlesque sideshow to a national obsession, performed in churches, Elks Clubs, schools, on Capitol Hill, and even at the Washington, DC, Gridiron Dinner. Barnes reveals how the practice was eventually federalized during the Great Depression and World War II, used as a bizarre tool of "Americanization" on military bases and in POW camps. Nearly every president until Gerald Ford attended minstrel shows, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt was scheduled to attend one on the day he died.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, minstrel shows were used to portray Black Americans as inferior; in fact, the 'Jim Crow' South was named after blackface’s founding character. But Barnes also chronicles the long, overlooked Civil Rights fight to stop it, detailing how Black veterans and mothers mobilized to banish the practice from American life.

Author Rhae Lynn Barnes will join host Paul Sparrow for a conversation about her stunning new book, Darkology, and the damage it has done to generations of Americans.

NOTE: this session is available to attend in-person or through Zoom. You MUST REGISTER and indicate which you prefer. Each individual attending must register.

This collaborative program by the Lewes Public Library, History Book Festival, and Browseabout Books is part of a series in observation of America250, which commemorates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, marking America’s Semiquincentennial. 

250th Anniversary Free Lectures & Workshops Literature & Poetry Southern Delaware

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