A photograph taken in 1961 of a typical Minstrel Show featuring “end men” in black-face. In the photo shown above, there were six “end men,” but the typical show had four. White men, who blackened their faces, and performed emphasizing negative stereotypical behavior that they attributed to African Americans, for the purpose of getting laughs were often the most prominent people in the community.
Ministrel shows were staged as fund raisers for churches, civic groups, veterans groups, and schools. Lykens and Wiconisco had long standing minstrel organizations that were active into the 21st century, but because of the recognition of the inappropriateness of black-face, those routines were modified or dropped from the minstrel show. At the time of this writing, the date the black-face was dropped, is not known.
Other than minstrel shows, black-face was common at New Year events as well as in patriotic parades.
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In coming days, news articles and other “memorabilia” will be presented here to show how “black-face” was infused into the culture of the Lykens Valley area. Readers are invited to submit photos and recollections on how long this offensive “entertainment” lasted and what locals thought of it as part of the culture of the area.
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The photo at the top of this post is from 1961 and was taken at a minstrel show sponsored by a Catholic Church outside the Lykens Valley area. From: Author’s collection.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.