I recently went to see a comedy show at Washington Hall that featured outlandish jokes and sarcastic impersonations. In 1924, other white male students went to the same building to see a similar comedy show. I was able to quote his review from the April 1924 issue of Scholastic magazine and apply it to the show I saw. But it was such hilarious, silly, and downright funny silliness! ”
What’s the difference between these shows, performed 100 years apart? Students at the University of Notre Dame once performed a blackface minstrel show.
Minstrelsy has had a huge impact on American culture. Popularized by Thomas “Daddy” Rice, who invented the Jim Crow character, minstrelsy gained popularity in the early 1800s and peaked between 1850 and his 1870s. After 1870, minstrel shows moved from professional theaters to amateur performances. Around the same time, the presence of blackface was first recorded at Notre Dame.
In addition to the primary interlocutor, it was standard for (white) performers to portray African Americans with artificially darkened faces and exaggerated features. African Americans were then made to perform caricatures of themselves in blackface. Minstrel shows and blackface’s foothold in American culture continued into movies and comic books. Find clips of Judy Garland appearing as a minstrel performer on “Babes on Broadway.” Or Bugs Bunny in blackface ”merry melodies”
Eva Lawson writes, “Blackface is as old as cherry pie in America, but twice as bad for the heart.” Blackface is a caricature of degrading black people born out of fear of white equality. Its widespread popularity demonstrated the cultural belief in black inferiority that justified domination during slavery and segregation after slavery. For some, typically in the North, this was the only perception of African Americans. Founded in 1842, the University of Notre Dame has naturally reflected American culture. Notre Dame, like this country, has a forgotten legacy of blackface and minstrel performances.
Blackface was first recorded on campus in 1870. Performance of “The Upstart”,” Production of Molière’s “Le Bourgeois Gentihomme”,” One viewer saw the addition of what the pair described as “a ‘dirty pussun’…’ ugliness personified…horrifying as sin.” They are said to have been greeted with “joyful cries.” These black characters were especially out of place in this 1600s play. In fact, they were replacing women’s roles. As professor emeritus Mark Pilkington notes in his book Washington Hall at Notre Dame, this case shows that “a young white man at Notre Dame found it more acceptable to portray an ethnic man than a white woman.” This proves the idea that people will be able to survive. ” Since the early days of college, theater roles for women were either not included or changed to characters of men of color. This can be seen on other occasions, such as in the 1898 rendition of “A Night Off.”,” The professor’s servant (a woman named Susan) was changed to “Sambo, the colored boy”. This role was clearly a mockery. Sambo was a derogatory term for African Americans. Scholastic wrote that the performer’s “dialect was impeccable” and that he “deserved the applause he received.”
The first reliable record of a full-fledged minstrel show (not just blackface) at Notre Dame came from an advertisement in Scholastic magazine. The Corby Hall Glee Club is preparing to perform “The Bard in Blackface,” which has been called “something new for Notre Dame,” and is “looking forward to it with much interest and satisfaction.” right. It wasn’t long before something like the “Mayday Minstrel” show became a reality. The 1914 yearbook includes a photo of 26 of the 32 performers wearing blackface on stage.
Knute Rockne acted in blackface, but is said to have been unable to understand the dialect. In the mid-1920s, notable figures such as Jim Crowley, one of the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame, and Clarence Mannion, who later became dean of the law school, performed in blackface. When Father John Devers returned from Pennsylvania in 1928, an event sponsored by the East Penn Club and Badin Hall, where he was president, featured a blackface comedy show accompanied by academic lectures and orchestral music. . Such performances were not seen as pointed provocations of undergraduates. They were commonplace.
As the 1930s drew to a close, minstrelsy began to lose its appeal at Notre Dame. According to Pilkington’s book, the Monogram Club replaced racist minstrels with sexist, parodic drag routines. In the 1940s, blackface was no longer a campus-wide publicized performance, reserved for events such as the Rebels Club’s Mardi Gras celebration in 1948…but it was a club celebrating the Confederacy. Still, as late as the fall of 1957, the theme of the band’s halftime show against Iowa was “Minstrel Show.” The show almost certainly avoided blackface.scholar The article states that it “featured songs from the days when they were doing minstrel shows in the South,” so it seems like that’s the end of it.
Why am I pointing this out? A big reason we study history is to avoid reliving unpleasant parts of the past. The same applies here. We must recognize that degrading stereotypes and jokes reflect a racist past. There is no debate in condemning the vile acts that keep us from social progress. Care must be taken to avoid slippery slopes.
Vincent Micheli
Class of 2027
January 16th
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of the observer.