In 1901, a white theatre director reportedly established an exclusive school to teach 150 African Americans from the South how to perform themselves. His curriculum: the original blackface minstrel act. The report of this school illuminates how minstrelsy not only defined “blackness” but also made it a teachable concept by white Americans.

Issue Section:
Routes of Blackface
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©2013 New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2013
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