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Blackface Makeup and Jim Crow

The term “Jim Crow” has long been applied to an era of American life in which
black citizens were denied basic rights. During the era of segregation in the
South, many states adopted Jim Crow laws, banning black citizens from en-
tering whites-only restaurants, theaters, restrooms, railroad cars, and similar
places.
The term “Jim Crow” was rst used in the 1830s and 1840s by a white
entertainer, Thomas Dartmouth Rice, who traveled the country performing a
song and dance act. Rice dressed as a eld slave and wore blackface makeup.
He named his buffoonish character “Jim Crow.”
In modern times, wearing blackface makeup is regarded as racially insensi-
tive, but cases still surface from time to time. In 2019, thirty- ve-year-old pho-
tographs of Virginia governor Ralph Northam surfaced showing Northam—then
a medical student—wearing blackface makeup while participating in a dance
contest. (He was portraying African American pop star Michael Jackson.) Some
Virginia political leaders demanded Northam resign, but he refused. Many African
American political leaders supported Northam during the controversy, agreeing
that a foolish act by a student thirty- ve years earlier should be forgiven.
Meanwhile, in 2020 two participants in Philadelphia’s annual New Year’s
Day Mummers Parade were found to be wearing blackface. After the parade,
Philadelphia mayor James Kenney demanded that Mummers of cials ban
blackface makeup or he would cancel the 2021 parade. Meanwhile, after the
parade, members of the Philadelphia City Council introduced a bill that would
make it illegal to wear blackface makeup in the parade. Mummers of cials said
they supported the bill.

wrong and should be abolished. In the early 1800s an aboli-
tionist movement commenced. Over the next few decades,
many slaves were able to escape and fi nd refuge in the north-
ern states. They received help from free blacks and sympathetic
white people participating in a secretive network known as the
Underground Railroad.

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