The historic fact that Minstrelsy produced America’s first pop music is undisputed.

Its subsequent influence on all American music going forward cannot be argued.

That the African-American story cannot be told without understanding both the positive and negative aspects of this uniquely American art form goes almost without saying.

With those facts in place, we must examine how the minstrel show helped perpetuate racial stereotypes. And how the wearing of blackface– by both Caucasian and African-American men and women– left a painful scar on America’s cultural soul. Today the mere mention of black-faced minstrels is enough to cause panic.

Without a doubt the best book written on this subject is John Strausbaugh’s Black Like You, and should be mandatory reading for anyone wishing to discuss this fraught area of American entertainment. Incredible to imagine today, but the last year of minstrel entertainment on the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus was 1950. Amateur minstrel shows were still performed in the 1960s until the Civil Rights movement’s influence caused the practice to end. (to be continued)