In 1929, the Shade Post of the American Legion at Gratz, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, celebrated Labor Day with a program at Community Park that included sports, a comic parade, a cake walk, and black-face comedians.
The plans were described in an Elizabethville Echo article of August 22, 1929, as follows:
GRATZ LEGION PLANS FOR LABOR DAY
Members of the Shade Post, American Legion of Gratz are planning an all day observance of Labor Day, Monday September 2nd. A basket picnic will be held in the community park and a sports program will hold sway from one to four o’clock in the afternoon.
It will include baseball, tug-of-war, turtle races and pillow fights, jumping contests and shoe scrambles. A comic parade is scheduled for five o’clock and a band concert at six.
In the evening, Arthur Klinger, black-face comedian will give several colored sketches and Bob Stiner, banjoist will participate in the program. An old fashioned cake walk is scheduled for nine o’clock. Refreshments will be sold on the grounds and no admission will be charged.
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For other articles on this blog, see Black-Face.
News article was obtained from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.