OFFICE OF CULTURALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY RESPONSIVE INITIATIVES

Brownies’ Books: Grades 9 & 10 May 2020 The Brownies’ Books are comprised of stories (folktales, fantasies, as well as more realistic stories), poems, games, articles on current events of the era, letters from young readers and photographs. In 1920, these literary magazines celebrated African American identity, urged racial pride, and encouraged its young readers to aspire to positions of leadership within their communities. The books are intended to be read with other members of the family. Many of the life lessons taught in the books are applicable to the uplift of young people of all races today. The office of CLRI, has chosen literary works from the Brownies’ Books, edited by renowned scholar, W.E.B. Du Bois, for you and your child’s reading pleasure. Each literary work has standards‐ aligned reading, writing, and critical thinking activities to supplement core‐curriculum reading materials. The Brownies’ Books are written by diverse authors, and particularly, authors of African American descent. According to historical literacy expert, Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, citing W.E.B. Du Bois, the Brownies’ Books are “designed for all children, but especially for ours.” Moreover, “the content of the readings was intended to recognize and cultivate the genius within youth” (Muhammad, 2020, p.152). Please be informed that the Brownies’ Books are historical documents that use period language and phrases common during the 1920s era. While we have maintained the authenticity of this literature, please understand some of the dialects are not common terms or phrases that are widely used today. The text represents people of color in a positive light dispelling falsehood and stereotypes. Please enjoy these historically and culturally responsive stories.

More stories can be found here: http://childlit.unl.edu/topics/edi.brownies.html The following stories can be read independently or aloud with families. Complete activities and questions under each story.

Why Bennie was Fired That Meddlesome Bird OFFICE OF CULTURALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY RESPONSIVE INITIATIVES

WHY BENNIE WAS FIRED BROWNIES’ BOOK- JULY 1920, W.E.B. DU BOIS, EDITOR WILLIE MAE KING

BENNIE PARKER was a little colored girl eleven years old but small for her age. Perhaps my little readers will smile to hear of a girl's being named Bennie but many little girls in the South have boys' names. Bennie was the oldest of four children and besides her father was dead. She was quite an attractive child and much petted at school because of her precociousness and industrial activities but at home she was the little mother of the family.

Bennie did chores every day for Mrs. Blair, a white lady who lived on Vine Street about three blocks from where Bennie lived. She helped with the meals, washed the dishes, and swept the porches and walks every morning before school. Bennie was proud of her job for she got three dollars and a half a week. Every morning she rose at 5:30 o'clock and was at her work by 6:00. She had finished her breakfast dishes, sweeping and dusting by 7:45 and was off to school on time. She always had her lessons and seemed no less happy than her more fortunate playmates at school.

Bennie's one great pride was her small bank into which she put one‐half of her weekly earnings; the other half she cheerfully gave to her widowed mother towards the general upkeep of her smaller brothers and sisters. A broad smile always revealed two pearly white rows of teeth and lit up her little brown face when Bennie thought of the fat roll of twenty‐five dollars tucked away in her little iron bank. This she had saved from her weekly earnings and also she had placed in her bank the extra nickels she made by going to the store for lunch for some of the teachers. Then too Miss Howard, her teacher, often gave her extra nickels for candy, but Bennie kept them tightly tied up in her handkerchief until she got home and then she would carefully deposit the shining coins among her other precious hoard. As soon as she had saved up thirty dollars she planned to put it in the big bank downtown where it would draw interest.

It was near time for school to close and Bennie had almost thirty‐five dollars now. She always finished her work earlier on Saturdays. One bright sunshiny Saturday in May she carried her sum of $35.50 to the National Bank in town and as she received a bank book with her name plainly written across the top and the amount stamped to her credit she was very happy. Several people smiled at the independent carriage of that little smiling colored girl as she left the bank. School would close on the twenty‐sixth of May and Bennie would finish from the Eighth Grade and she was the youngest in her class! The school board had offered three prizes for the winners in an oratorical contest for the colored pupils in all the grade schools of the city and there were three. The first prize was twenty‐five dollars; the second, ten dollars; and the third, five dollars. Bennie wanted to try for one of the prizes and how she wished she could win the first! Then she would have almost one hundred dollars saved. Oh! if she could only win!

Bennie had never written anything herself— the speaking part wasn't so bad for she had often recited, but to write an essay seemed doubtful. Then, too, there was Evelyn Hill who could write much better than she and Helen Jones who spoke so well, too. She decided that she would not try but that night she dreamed that she won in the contest. Bennie didn't believe in dreams because none of hers ever came true but somehow the next morning on her way to work she resolved to try. The next morning she gave her name to her teacher as one of the contestants.

"I am glad you are going to try, Bennie," pleasantly remarked Miss Howard after hastily writing her name.

Bennie gave as her reply her broad, cheerful smile. She hurried to finish her work that evening and when Mrs. Blair came into the kitchen to tell Bennie she could take home the cake which was left from luncheon she found the work done and Bennie gone.

The thought foremost in her mind was the preparation of her essay. She had now only three weeks to write and memorize it. She could hardly see how she could do it but she must. She made visits to the library during her recess hours and found some material which helped her in writing the composition. Then for over a week she practiced memorizing it.

She rose earlier than the rest of the family and would go over the essay aloud in the kitchen or the woodshed. Bennie found herself running breathlessly in order to get to work on time every morning. She had practiced in the woodshed every morning now because she was afraid her loud talking in the kitchen would cause some member of the house hold to investigate and no one must find it out.

Friday morning Bennie stayed over fifteen minutes of her time and by the time she ran up the street to the big stone steps of the brick house it was six‐thirty. She had been late nearly every day of the week. 'What would Mrs. Blair say? Bennie wondered if she had yet come into the kitchen as she ran up on the porch. She caught sight of Mrs. Blair's tall but stout form through the glass of the kitchen door.

Bennie quietly walked in with her usual "Good morning, Mrs. Blair." Mrs. Blair was irritated this morning because she had planned to accompany her husband in the car to town that morning and here Bennie had spoiled her arrangement by being late again. "Bennie you are late again. You needn't come back tomorrow, you are fired!" was Mrs. Blair's stern verdict. Her piercing blue eyes looked straight into Bennie's wide open deep brown ones. She hastily left the kitchen and the rest of the work for Bennie.

The blow to Bennie was a crushing one. She was almost late for school that morning and she felt that everybody knew she was "fired". She never had been before and she couldn't feel just right again unless she had "a job". What would her mother say? She couldn't tell why she was late. That would give her secret away. After school she slowly turned her steps homeward to tell her mother she was "fired."

"Mother, I got fired this morning," said Bennie slowly, expecting a sound scolding as she placed her school books under the table.

"'Fired'! and all on account of that little unruly tongue of yours I suspect," said her mother. "Well school is out next week and I guess another job will turn up soon," she consolingly concluded.

Bennie dared not to attempt an explanation for she was glad to escape. She was thankful for the extra days she had to put in practice and made several extra trips to the woodshed that week for wood.

Commencement quickly arrived and the contest was to be in the city auditorium at eight o'clock Wednesday night. Bennie looked very nice in her white dress, white shoes and stockings which she had earned herself. Six contestants were seated on the platform including one boy, Herbert Brown. The speakers were not to talk over fifteen minutes. Herbert brought forth storms of applause from the interested audience. Bennie was the next and last speaker and her little heart beat double quick time when the master of ceremonies called her name.

Instantly upon rising she gained poise and self control. She delivered her oration with ease, conviction and fluency. When she sat down her ears were tingling with applause, and other demonstrations of her victory were given by various animated ones in the audience. In less than twenty minutes the judges returned and announced the winner. Bennie had won the twenty‐five dollars in gold!

Bennie could hardly close her eyes that night for she was so happy. She didn't mind being fired at all now because she had earned as much in one night as she would have earned in one month by being hired out.

She arose early the next morning and ran all the way to Mrs. Blair's, holding tightly to the gold coin in her little brown hand. Mrs. Blair not being able to find any domestic help had resorted to washing her breakfast dishes every morning. "Good morning, Mrs. Blair," said Bennie in her usual cheerful way as she walked into the open kitchen door.

"Why—er—good morning," stammered Mrs. Blair, as her eyes turned upon the round dimpled brown face just full of smiles. "Did you come back to work?"

"No ma'am, I only came to show you what I got for being fired," and she held out the precious gold coin in her hand. Mrs. Blair's eyes grew larger with surprise and admiration as Bennie proudly related the incidents which led to her victory.

"Why didn't you tell me before, Bennie, that you were in a contest and needed time to practice? You may come back to work if you wish," she replied sympathetically.

"I can't come back now any way, for Miss Howard, my teacher, has promised me a delightful vacation for winning the first prize. You know I've never had a vacation and I am so anxious to find out how one feels," replied Bennie seriously yet with delightful humor.

Mrs. Blair could not but help rejoice with Bennie as she almost danced out of the kitchen door and happily hummed one of her school songs all the way home.

READING, WRITING, AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS ACTIVITIES: 1. VOCABULARY:

Stout Precociousness -thick and strong -having or showing the qualities of an adult at an usually early age Hoard Oratorical -a large amount of something valuable -relating to the skill or activity of giving that is kept hidden speeches Luncheon Upkeep -a formal lunch that occurs as part of a -the process of keeping something in meeting or for entertaining guest good condition Broad Pearly -large from one side to the other side -having the shiny, white color of pearls Doubtful Foremost -uncertain or unsure about something -most important Conviction Commencement -the act of proving that a person is -the time when something begins guilty of a crime in a court of law Poise Domestic -a calm, confident manner -made in your own country Fluency Rejoice -the ability to speak easily and -to feel or show that you are very happy smoothly about something Oration Unruly -a formal speech -difficult to control Verdict Dimpled -the decision made by a jury in a trial -having dimples

Choose two words to complete the Frayer models below:

2. VISUAL: Animate the story When Bennie was Fired by creating a picture book to tell the story in its details and entirety. Upload a video to Schoology (CLRI course) reading the story and showing the pages of your picture book. You can design the cover of your picture book in the box below.

3. ESSAY: Write a 500-word essay about a time when you diligently worked towards a goal? Tell whether it was an academic or personal goal. Did you achieve it? Why or why not? Why was this a goal? What obstacles were in your way? What helped you to persevere? What were the results of your hard work? Would you do anything different? Did you tell anyone, or did you keep it a secret like Bennie? What were the consequences of you telling it or you keeping it a secret?

OFFICE OF CULTURALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY RESPONSIVE INITIATIVES

That Meddlesome Bird BROWNIES BOOK-MAY 1920, W.E.B. DUBOIS, EDITOR ANNETTE CHRISTINE BROWNE

—1— THERE'S a little bird that comes when the weather gets warm, 'Long 'bout the time the corn rows seem so long; If you stop to rest a minute he begins to scream and storm And he sings an awful tantalizing song. He cocks his head and looks at you in such a sassy way, "La‐zee‐ness will ki‐i‐ill yer!" is what he seems to say.

—2— I wouldn't mind his singing, if he wouldn't sing that song, For I know it's jest to be a‐teasing me. Why some days I'm up at sunrise working steady all day long, And a‐hustling jest as long as I can see. An' 'at meddl'some o' bird he sets a‐swinging on a limb, "La‐zee‐ness will ki‐i‐ill yer!" is all I get from him.

—3— I woke up soon one morning before time to start the day, And thought I'd lie awake awhile in bed. I soon went off to sleep again but didn't go to stay, For that meddler woke me screaming overhead. He was looking in my window from his perch upon a tree, "La‐zee‐ness will ki‐i‐ill yer!" he was singing down to me.

—4— Oh! I got so awful mad that I jumped up out of bed And grabbed my shoe and threw it in the tree. "I hope you'll die of meddling, you old nuisance, you!" I said, But he dodged my shoe and shook his head at me. He looked like he was saying, "Gonna lie in bed all day? "La‐zee‐ness will ki‐i‐ill yer!" he sang and flew away.

VOCABULARY: Meddlesome Tantalizing -interfering -tormenting or teasing with the sight or promise of something unobtainable Meddler Perch -an annoying person who interferes -a thing on which a bird alights or with others roosts, typically a branch or a horizontal rod or bar in a birdcage Nuisance Mood -a person, thing, or circumstance -descriptive words used by an author causing inconvenience or annoyance that suggests a particular feeling or state of mind Tone Imagery -the attitude conveyed by an author -visually descriptive or figurative through their word choice and writing language, especially in a literary work style

Choose two words to complete the Frayer models below.

READING, WRITING AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS ACTIVITIES:

1. The gist is what the text is mostly about. What is the gist of the poem? In 2 - 3 sentences, write a basic summary of the poem.

2. In the poem, the “meddlesome” bird continuously repeats: "La-zee-ness will ki-i-ill yer!". In a short paragraph (5-7 sentences), defend the possible reasoning behind the bird repeatedly making this remark towards the character. Support your response using evidence from the text.

3. Authors use descriptive words and sensory language to create imagery for the reader. This allows the reader to make meaning and connect to the text. As you were reading, surely you could not help but imagine both characters, their interactions with each other and maybe even what the setting looked like. Put that imagination to paper and draw a visual to go along with each numbered section of the text. Be sure to include both characters in your drawings.

1. 2.

3. 4.

4. Mood vs. Tone. In literature, the mood is what the reader feels based on the author’s words and descriptions. Tone is the attitude that an author is trying to convey through their word choice and writing style.

List 2-3 words to describe the mood and tone of the text. Mood Tone 1. 1.

2. 2.

3. 3.

Use the chart above and the text to answer the following questions in a short essay (in at least 250 words).  Do these words give off a negative or positive feeling? Explain your thinking.  How does that impact how the reader understands the text?  Describe how the characters and conflicts have an effect on the mood and tone. Use evidence from the text to support your response.

OFFICE OF CULTURALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY RESPONSIVE INITIATIVES May 2020

1619 PROJECT – NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, August 2019 READING, WRITING, AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS ACTIVITIES 9th Grade ARTICLE: AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC AUTHOR: WESLEY MORRIS Standard: . Social Studies Practice – Grades 9-12 – A2: Identify, select, and evaluate evidence about events from diverse sources (including written documents, works of art, photographs, charts and graphs, artifacts, oral traditions, and other primary and secondary sources).

PRE-READING ACTIVITY VOCABULARY Define the following terms. . blackface minstrel

. bondage

. composition

. dehumanizing

. dialect

. improvisation

. indiscriminate

. jubilation

. parody

Buffalo Public Schools – Office of Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Initiatives PRE-READING ACTIVITY QUOTE Explain what this quote means in your own words. “For centuries, black music, forged in bondage, has been the sound of complete artistic freedom. No wonder everybody is always stealing it.” (p. 60)

DURING-READING ACTIVITY Respond to the following prompts. Gist Statement – 2-3 sentences that summarizes the text:

3 key words from the article:

2 things I learned from the article: (Information that is new to me or challenges something I have previously learned about American History)

1 personal connection I can make with the article:

Buffalo Public Schools – Office of Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Initiatives POST-READING ACTIVITY #1 The article, “Popular American Music” by Wesley Morris, emphasizes invaluable contributions by Black Americans. After reading this piece, consider:

. Which contributions were new to you?

. What other contributions by Black Americans should be taught in schools?

Conduct an online research project that investigates an innovation by a Black American. You could research innovators in music, science, technology, or any other arena. Select a person who contributed to a field you are passionate about!

Write a 1-2 page speech to commemorate this person’s achievement. Create a visual to accompany your speech (for example: design an honorary medal, design a postage stamp, draw a portrait, sketch a sculpture).

Source: Pulitzer Center

Buffalo Public Schools – Office of Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Initiatives POST-READING ACTIVITY #1 (response space)

Buffalo Public Schools – Office of Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Initiatives

POST-READING ACTIVITY #1 (response space for the visual)

Buffalo Public Schools – Office of Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Initiatives POST-READING ACTIVITY #2 CREATIVE RESPONSE Choose one of the following to complete: . Write a poem that connects your personal experiences and emotions to the information in this article. . Create a collage of images and words that represents the overarching ideas and emotions of the article. . Consider a social justice issue that is connected to this article. Write a letter to a person in power (for example: mayor, superintendent, company CEO) advocating for actions that need to be taken to address this issue.

Buffalo Public Schools – Office of Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Initiatives always stealing it. everybody is freedom. complete artistic been the sound of in bondage, has black music, forged or centuries, ￿ hoto illustration by ByWesley Morris ￿ he 1619 he 60 ￿ ￿ roject o wonder ichael ￿ aul ￿ ritto

Credit by Name Surname ugust 18, 2019

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It’s day,Ilaughed out of ba lement and himself out even more. he’s baring it all yet begging to wring if chorus.assoundsHe theduring theverses,snarling tearyin — ing of his yearn- you over intensity is the doesn’t wakethe baby. Whatbowls mined to make the kind of love that deter- someone like whisper, stage Playing black-music detective that Then Kenny Loggins’s ‘‘This Is It’’ But it’s also: also: it’s But It’s: It’s: Go, white ￿ he 1619 he Here 62 ￿ elaborate tangle almost from the the from almost tangle elaborate music has been fated to thrive in an alive in America, alive deeply it matters to the music ofblackest parties, beingthen it’s proof of how Wait’’ remains the whitest jam at the Shooz’sreasonNu‘‘ICan’ttheit’s seeminglyPlatt;ifas Ben green as singer a of angst angelic the in does canitsurface unexpectedlyas itas vulnerabilities of Amy Winehouse; if animate the swagger in the sardonic toMe’’ into agospel hymn; if it can chorus of Carly Simon’s ‘‘You Belong packof Newports; if it can turn the like— she knows her wayaround a tion,’’‘‘Portuguese Love,’’ Biz,’’‘‘Revolu- ‘‘Lovergirl’’ ‘‘Square — everything nem; if it can make Teena MarieEmi- of singout origami psychotic this literarinessout of Steely Dan and all blacknesscan draw all of this ornate again. go we Prince on electric guitar. live-in-concert Whitney Houston and stank of Etta James, Aretha Franklin, visceral DMX’s The bark. scorched-earth siren. police emotional Davis’strumpeting.LaBelle’sPatti Miles of heat dusky The zooms. ard’s woosknuckledand keyboard Rich- Little — instrument an of bre arise from the particular hue and tim- ‘‘noise,’’called that sounds unique copationthisandrougher element with call and response, layers of syn- completelydi erent story. Itbrims largelyungrained. Black musica is wood Mac, something choral, ‘‘pure,’’ Beatles, the Eagles, Simon and Fleet- the of harmonies singable hugely aretheingredients for sometheof breof voice andinstrument: These tim- clean harmony, matic-chord Chro- songs. pop American of lots for basis overarching the is music with dismaying ranges of consent. interracial collaboration conducted of manner all of it, called ago long ‘‘miscegenation’’tion’’theyand as ‘‘amalgama-of centuries opposite: the of years400 foradvertisement an is music country’s This tain? main- to struggles separation that of many are at least both. The purity aspects characterwhen ‘‘black’’ in ‘‘white’’either be or can forms art that idea the separateness, racial of myth a investmentinpolitical a made have Americans beginning. roject It’s proof, too, that American American that too, proof, It’s ‘ht,’ ‘‘Western,’’ ‘‘classical’’‘‘White,’’ The problem isrich. If to America. ing, of play, of exhaustion, of hope. were denied literacy), music born of feel- people enslaved (because music — music no one ‘‘composed’’ on a plantation: through art, through waythatwould havepossible been onlythe in completelyfree free,be by which singers and musicians can is the architecture to create a means Particulartoblack Americanmusic creates. noise that elements ating itself and not the distorting or devi- song the of composition the into improvisation, a listener is seduced aesthetic worldsong.’’a of Without sionto the highest place withinthe creativity/expres-individual of ing ‘‘The rais- music: of we as black think whatin elements crucial most the of one improvisationis that email an in explainedCollege, Wheaton at teaches who musician a Case, fundamental, too. My friend Delvyn ‘‘appropriation’’ can approximate. approximate. can ‘‘appropriation’’ like word catchall a than more is we’ve been dealing with ever since parody.’’ and theft byWhat only if society, has always been American integrated, of state the whatever entertainment, ‘‘American 1920s, the in culture popular of history ‘‘TerribleHonesty,’’in writes her Douglas Ann historian the 1830s, of some in octane the tripling back, all it ed the black blues. Tina Turner wrest- wailed and jived jumped, Beatles Winwood and the Janis and Joplin Steve and Plant Jagger Robert and lascivious winks at whiteness. Mick roll with uproarious guitar ri s and ness. Chuck Berry sculpted rock ’n’ believed he’d been called by black- he that Presley Elvis bewitched so by it. The blues rockin’ backwoods who can withstand being possessed where it settles, selective only about about indiscriminate racially host, You’re catching the spirit. se. per notes, of arrangement the You’re errand. fool’s capturing not a like it, about think you if seems, it rerecord to attempt The arise. moments those which from ration or sampling but the mood or inspi- sandi, the rasp of a sax, breakbeats onlyjustnot glis- — melisma, once happen really an can that experience sound, of miracle a is music But there’s something even more And the spirit travels from host to black in hearingyou’reWhat their songs. Since the the Since songs.

Opening pages: Source photograph of Beyoncé: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images. Holiday: Paul Hoeffler/Redferns, via Getty Images. Turner: Gai Terrell/Redferns, via Getty Images. Richards: Chris Walter/WireImage, via Getty Images. Lamar: Bennett Raglin/Getty Images. Above left: From The New York Public Library. Above right: Shutterstock. ￿ugust 18, 2019

The blackface performer Thomas Dartmouth Rice (T. D. Rice), who Sheet music of ‘‘Jim Crow Jubilee: A Collection of Negro Melodies,’’ pioneered the ‘‘Jim Crow’’ character, in a portrait from the mid-1800s. published in 1847.

The truth is more bounteous and in, underscoring that black people Blackness was on the move before black man singing while grooming more spiritual than that, more con- have often been rendered unnec- my ancestors were legally free to a horse on the property of a white fused. That confusion is the DNA of essary to attempt blackness. Take be. It was on the move before my man whose last name was Crow. the American sound. Billboard’s Top 10 songs of 2013: ancestors even knew what they On went the light bulb. Rice took It’s in the wink-wink costume It’s mostly nonblack artists strongly had. It was on the move because in the tune and the movements but funk of Beck’s ‘‘Midnite Vultures’’ identifi ed with black music, for real white people were moving it. And failed, it seems, to take down the old from 1999, an album whose kicky and for kicks: Robin Thicke, Miley the white person most frequently man’s name. So in his song based nonsense deprecations circle back Cyrus, Justin Timberlake, Mack- identifi ed as its prime mover is on the horse groomer, he renamed to the popular culture of 150 years lemore and Ryan Lewis, the dude Thomas Dartmouth Rice, a New him: ‘‘Weel about and turn about jus earlier. It’s in the dead-serious, who made ‘‘The Harlem Shake.’’ Yorker who performed as T. D. so/Ebery time I weel about, I jump nostalgic dance-floor schmaltz Sometimes all the inexorable Rice and, in acclaim, was lusted Jim Crow.’’ And just like that, Rice of Bruno Mars. It’s in what we mixing leaves me longing for some- after as ‘‘Daddy’’ Rice, ‘‘the negro had invented the fellow who would once called ‘‘blue-eyed soul,’’ a thing with roots that no one can rip par excellence.’’ Rice was a min- become the mascot for two centu- term I’ve never known what to do all the way out. This is to say that strel, which by the 1830s, when ries of legalized racism. with, because its most convinc- when we’re talking about black his stardom was at its most reful- That night, Rice made himself up ing practitioners — the Bee-Gees, music, we’re talking about horns, gent, meant he painted his face to look like the old black man — or Michael McDonald, Hall & Oates, drums, keyboards and guitars doing with burned cork to approximate something like him, because Rice’s Simply Red, George Michael, Tay- the unthinkable together. We’re also those of the enslaved black people get-up most likely concocted skin lor Dayne, Lisa Stansfi eld, Adele talking about what the borrowers he was imitating. blacker than any actual black per- — never winked at black people, and collaborators don’t want to or In 1830, Rice was a nobody actor son’s and a gibberish dialect meant so black people rarely batted an can’t lift — centuries of weight, of in his early 20s, touring with a to imply black speech. Rice had eyelash. Flaws and all, these are atrocity we’ve never su ciently theater company in Cincinnati (or turned the old man’s melody and homeowners as opposed to rent- worked through, the blackness you Louisville; historians don’t know for hobbled movements into a song- ers. No matter what, though, a know is beyond theft because it’s sure), when, the story goes, he saw and-dance routine that no white kind of gentrifi cation tends to set too real, too rich, too heavy to steal. a decrepit, possibly disfi gured old audience had ever experienced 63 ￿ he 1619 ￿roject

Ma Rainey, an early blues singer who performed in black minstrel shows, with her band. before. What they saw caused a taking over concert halls, doing — that would lay the groundwork the borderline-mythical Old Corn permanent sensation. He report- wildly clamored-for residencies in for American popular music, from Meal, who started as a street ven- edly won 20 encores. Boston, New York and Philadelphia. bluegrass to Motown. Some of dor and wound up the fi rst black Rice repeated the act again, A blackface minstrel would sing, these instruments had come from man to perform, as himself, on a night after night, for audiences dance, play music, give speeches Africa; on a plantation, the banjo’s white New Orleans stage. His stu so profoundly rocked that he was and cut up for white audiences, body would have been a desiccated was copied by George Nichols, who frequently mobbed during perfor- almost exclusively in the North, gourd. In ‘‘Doo-Dah!’’ his book on took up blackface after a start in mances. Across the Ohio River, not at least initially. Blackface was Foster’s work and life, Ken Emer- plain-old clowning. Yet as often as an arduous distance from all that used for mock operas and politi- son writes that the fi ddle and banjo not, blackface minstrelsy tethered adulation, was Boone County, Ky., cal monologues (they called them were paired for the melody, while black people and black life to white whose population would have been stump speeches), skits, gender par- the bones ‘‘chattered’’ and the tam- musical structures, like the polka, largely enslaved Africans. As they odies and dances. Before the min- bourine ‘‘thumped and jingled a beat which was having a moment in were being worked, sometimes strel show gave it a reliable home, that is still heard ’round the world.’’ 1848. The mixing was already well to death, white people, desperate blackface was the entertainment But the sounds made with these underway: Europe plus slavery plus with anticipation, were paying to between acts of conventional plays. instruments could be only imagined the circus, times harmony, comedy see them depicted at play. Its stars were the Elvis, the Beatles, as black, because the fi rst wave of and drama, equals Americana. Other performers came and con- the ’NSync of the 19th century. The minstrels were Northerners who’d And the muses for so many of the quered, particularly the Virginia performers were beloved and so, never been meaningfully South. songs were enslaved Americans, Minstrels, who exploded in 1843, especially, were their songs. They played Irish melodies and people the songwriters had never burned brightly then burned out During minstrelsy’s heyday, white used Western choral harmonies, met, whose enslavement they rare- after only months. In their wake, songwriters like Stephen Foster not the proto-gospel call-and-re- ly opposed and instead sentimen- P. T. Barnum made a habit of book- wrote the tunes that minstrels sang, sponse music that would make talized. Foster’s minstrel-show sta- ing other troupes for his American tunes we continue to sing. Edwin life on a plantation that much ple ‘‘Old Uncle Ned,’’ for instance, Museum; when he was short on Pearce Christy’s group the Christy more bearable. Black artists were warmly if disrespectfully eulogizes performers, he blacked up himself. Minstrels formed a band — banjo, on the scene, like the pioneer the enslaved the way you might a By the 1840s, minstrel acts were fi ddle, bone castanets, tambourine bandleader Frank Johnson and salaried worker or an uncle: 64 Left: Redferns via Getty Images. Right: Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images. contempt could become fantasy. fantasy. become could contempt jubilation, become could fear tial existen- which upon stage a ism rac- lent also it But polemics. and ribaldry skill, of entertainment an the country this period during was into slavery’s fun house. escape an Itbondage?wastheir of dangerous lustwith enamoredand docile, stupid, as humans other of presentation the upon predicated escape a reckoning. But a good time to urge the(generously) asbe read minstrelsy’scouldpopularity haps War.Civil the Per-of end the until form art the U.T.C.s,over as took slavery.known adaptations, These BeecherStowe’sriet novel,against Har- to faithful remaining simply in and, for arguing stage, the for adapted minstrels that landmark ‘‘UncleTom's Cabin,’’ polarizing a of 1852, inpublication, the ed with Lincoln. of Abraham assassination the and Ferry Harpers at rection botched instigation of a black insur- Brown’s John Douglass, Frederick of ascent rhetorical ferocious the Reconstruction, War Civil and the included that years Negroes; and islatively ambivalent about slavery leg- and violently most its as was countrythe years1870s, when the to 1840s the from stretched peak Day.’’ He’s Minstrelsy’s not wrong. Thanksgiving and July of Fourth the as certainly colonizations as conquests, and emigrations, its all in American ‘‘the follows that force a character,’’ national the of side popular more the of sions expres- ‘‘true the were this like songs assessment; 1850 Taylor’s Bayard critic ‘‘air,’’white as the in essential as was Ned Uncle dead) for poor old (enslaved, soon-to-be- What blackface minstrelsy gaveminstrelsy blackface What Minstrelsy’s ascent also coincid- Such an aan Such ectionate Niggas go. poor Old Ned — Niggas go, poor Old Ned — bow: and de hoe, He’s gone whar de good good de whar gone He’s for work hard more No good de whar gone He’s for work hard more No fi de de and up ddle Hang shubble de down lay Den

showcase showcase Tina Turner performing at a festival in Lake Amador, Calif., on Oct. 4, 1969. 4, Oct. on Calif., Lake Amador, in festival a at TurnerTina performing country’s cultural juggernaut, money juggernaut, Negroes pay would who cultural country’s the was blackface If performer? did where But swung from a tree. it as body his or back lashed his ignore theycould as surely as Ned overworkedUnclefor weep could Theylust. as repulsion as adoration, contempt desire, as loathing experience could They human. more feel audiences let white bent dehumanizing its Paradoxically, this leave a black black a leave this ￿ ugust 18,2019 65 row presumptions. As Thomas Thomas As presumptions. row nar-consumer’s a white on blight would outrageous an him rendered have black actually being his And black. genuinely was course, was Diamond (and Diamond outdo could time, the at reported was it who, boy, a found Barnum hall, dance City New a In York minstrel. star white for replacement John his Diamond, pinch. Once, P. T. Barnum needed a a in only was it hired, were they When themselves? as perform to good ). The boy, of of boy, The ). as ‘the champion nigger-dancer of nigger-dancer champion as ‘the out him brought and locks curled tight his over wig woolly a on put vermilion, lips thick his painted cork, burned of blacking new a overit with rubbed and face ger’s’ So Barnum ‘‘greased the little ‘nig- look at the of dancing a real negro.’’ the fashion, insult of being asked to energetic very a in resented, have audience in America that would not Life,’’American ‘‘There an was not ‘‘Forty 1864 compendium, Years of his in write would Nichols Low ￿ he 1619 ￿roject the world.’ ’’ This child might have There was, perhaps, not a white for it’s as glamorous a blackness What a panicked clairvoyant! been William Henry Lane, whose audience in America, particularly as this country has ever mass-pro- The fear of black culture — or stage name was Juba. And, as Juba, in the South, that would not have duced and devoured. ‘‘black culture’’ — was more than a Lane was persuasive enough that resented, in a very energetic fash- The proliferation of black music fear of black people themselves. It Barnum could pass him o as a ion, the insult of being asked to across the planet — the prolifera- was an anxiety over white obsoles- white person in blackface. He look at the majestic singing of a tion, in so many senses, of being cence. Kennard’s anxiety over black ceased being a real black boy in real Negro. black — constitutes a magnifi cent infl uence sounds as ambivalent as order to become Barnum’s min- The modern conundrum of the joke on American racism. It also Lorde’s, when, all the way from her strel Pinocchio. black performer’s seeming respect- confi rms the attraction that some- native New Zealand, she tsk-ed rap After the Civil War, black per- able, among black people, began, in one like Rice had to that black man culture’s extravagance on ‘‘Royals,’’ formers had taken up minstrelsy, too, part, as a problem of white black- grooming the horse. But some- her hit from 2013, while recogniz- corking themselves, for both white face minstrels’ disrespectful black- thing about that desire warps and ing, both in the song’s hip-hop pro- and black audiences — with a straight ness. Frederick Douglass wrote that perverts its source, lampoons and duction and its appetite for a partic- face or a wink, depending on who they were ‘‘the fi lthy scum of white cheapens it even in adoration. Lov- ular sort of blackness, that maybe was looking. Black troupes invented society.’’ It’s that scum that’s given ing black culture has never meant she’s too far gone: important new dances with blue-rib- us pause over everybody from Bert loving black people, too. Loving bon names (the buck-and-wing, the Williams and Bill ‘‘Bojangles’’ Robin- black culture risks loving the life Every song’s like gold teeth, Virginia essence, the stop-time). But son to Flavor Flav and Kanye West. Is out of it. Grey Goose, trippin’ in the these were unhappy innovations. their blackness an act? Is the act under And yet doesn’t that attraction bathroom Custom obligated black performers white control? Just this year, Harold make sense? This is the music of a Bloodstains, ball gowns, to fulfi ll an audience’s expectations, E. Doley Jr., an a luent black Repub- people who have survived, who not trashin’ the hotel room expectations that white performers lican in his 70s, was quoted in The only won't stop but also can’t be We don’t care, we’re driving had established. A black minstrel was Times lamenting West and his align- stopped. Music by a people whose Cadillacs in our dreams impersonating the impersonation of ment with Donald Trump as a ‘‘bad major innovations — jazz, funk, hip- But everybody’s like Cristal, himself. Think, for a moment, about and embarrassing minstrel show’’ hop — have been about progress, Maybach, diamonds on your the talent required to pull that o . that ‘‘served to only drive black peo- about the future, about getting as timepiece According to Henry T. Sampson’s ple away from the G.O.P.’’ far away from nostalgia as time will Jet planes, islands, tigers on book, ‘‘Blacks in Blackface,’’ there But it’s from that scum that a allow, music that’s thought deeply a gold leash were no sets or e ects, so the black robust, post-minstrel black Ameri- about the allure of outer space and We don’t care, we aren’t blackface minstrel show was ‘‘a can theater sprung as a new, black robotics, music whose promise and caught up in your love a air developer of ability because the art- audience hungered for actual, possibility, whose rawness, humor ist was placed on his own.’’ How’s uncorked black people. Without that and carnality call out to everybody Beneath Kennard’s warnings that for being twice as good? Yet scum, I’m not sure we get an event — to other black people, to kids in must have lurked an awareness that no-frills excellence could cur- as shatteringly epochal as the reign working class England and mid- that his white brethren had already dle into an entirely other, utterly of Motown Records. Motown was dle-class Indonesia. If freedom's fallen under this spell of blackness, degrading double consciousness, a full-scale integration of Western, ringing, who on Earth wouldn't also that nothing would stop its spread to one that predates, predicts and prob- classical orchestral ideas (strings, want to rock the bell? teenage girls in 21st-century Auck- ably informs W. E. B. DuBois’s more horns, woodwinds) with the instincts land, that the men who ‘‘infest our self-consciously dignifi ed rendering. of both the black church (rhythm In 1845, J. K. Kennard, a critic for promenades and our concert halls American popular culture was sections, gospel harmonies, hand the newspaper The Knickerbocker, like a colony of beetles’’ (as a contem- doomed to cycles not only of claps) and juke joint Saturday nights hyperventilated about the black- porary of Kennard’s put it) weren’t questioned ownership, challenged (rhythm sections, guitars, vigor). ening of America. Except he was black people at all but white people authenticity, dubious propriety and Pure yet ‘‘noisy.’’ Black men in Arma- talking about blackface minstrels just like him — beetles and, eventu- legitimate cultural self-preserva- ni. Black women in ball gowns. Sta- doing the blackening. Nonetheless, ally, Beatles. Our fi rst most original tion but also to the prison of black bles of black writers, producers and Kennard could see things for what art form arose from our original sin, respectability, which, with brutal musicians. Backup singers solving they were: and some white people have always irony, could itself entail a kind of social equations with geometric cho- been worried that the primacy of appropriation. It meant comport- reography. And just in time for the ‘‘Who are our true rulers? black music would be a kind of kar- ment in a manner that seemed less hegemony of the American teenager. The negro poets, to be sure! mic punishment for that sin. The black and more white. It meant the Even now it feels like an assault Do they not set the fashion, work has been to free this country appearance of refi nement and pol- on the music made a hundred years and give laws to the public from paranoia’s bondage, to truly ish. It meant the cognitive disso- before it. Motown specialized taste? Let one of them, in the embrace the amplitude of integra- nance of, say, Nat King Cole’s being in love songs. But its stars, those swamps of Carolina, compose tion. I don’t know how we’re doing. very black and sounding — to white songs and their performance of a new song, and it no sooner Last spring, ‘‘Old Town Road,’’ America, anyway, with his friction- them were declarations of war on reaches the ear of a white ama- a silly, drowsy ditty by the Atlanta less baritone and diction as crisp as the insults of the past and present. teur, than it is written down, songwriter Lil Nas X, was essen- a hospital corner — suitably white. The scratchy piccolo at the start amended, (that is, almost tially banished from country radio. He was perfect for radio, yet when of a Four Tops hit was, in its way, spoilt,) printed, and then put Lil Nas sounds black, as does the he got a TV show of his own, it was a raised fi st. Respectability wasn’t upon a course of rapid dissem- trap beat he’s droning over. But abruptly canceled, his brown skin a problem with Motown; respect- ination, to cease only with the there’s defi nitely a twang to him being too much for even the black ability was its point. How radically utmost bounds of Anglo-Sax- that goes with the opening bars of and white of a 1955 television set. optimistic a feat of antiminstrelsy, ondom, perhaps of the world.’’ faint banjo and Lil Nas’s lil’ cowboy 66 Photography by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images its current version.’’ This doesn’t doesn’t This version.’’ current its in chart to music country today’s of elements enough ‘‘embrace to failed song the that determined didn’t explain why. Then, Billboard radio refused to play the song; they for now at least, a last. fiA chart. Songs Country And, rst. Hot its and chart Songs Hip-Hop R&B/ Hot its both on up showed 100 singles chart, either. In April, it Hot Billboard’s on just not — ed chart- It happened. thing crazy a on YouTube it to TikTok.and Then dances posted — promgoers black — cops, soldiers, dozens of dapper a phenomenon. All kinds of people into snowballed song fantasy. The Lil Nas X, left, and Billy Ray Cyrus perform in Indio, Calif., in 2019. The gatekeepers of country country of gatekeepers The black for certain white people. anyway: thorough, be let’s but translation, warrant utes in support, and one, Billy RayBilly one, and support, in utes White singers recorded pretty trib- this. sense to seemed genre the of too was Nas Lil Perhaps era. minstrel the of spine musical the banjo, a is trackNails Inch Nine a of sample song’s the in instance, for Here, historical. feels mixing The thesis. American birthright of cultural syn- the up taken just he’d black, with music white merged really hadn’t kid black A culture. integrated of and tapped into the confused thrill imagination nation’s the captured But by that point it had alreadyhad it point bythat But American. Other country artists e song is too too is song e

￿ ugust 18,2019 67 and put through hell. Twenty became in Virginia.workto They put were than20 kidnapped Africansarrived Get o my land. encroachment. of progress remains another’s symbol of sign person's One is. place this way but as proof of what a fiyacht-rock surprised, ne a mess in not — too laugh, me makes thing whole the over glee bottomless the And record. a setting April, since chart Billboard’s all-genre Hot 100 singles adaisical wonder. It’s been No. 1 on casual grit alongside Lil Nas’s lack- with Lil Nas X himself. remix a on his performed Cyrus, Four hundred years ago, more more ago, years hundred Four Cyrus’s lays newer version The Screw the history. Screwthe land. their is land This the ride. Musically, they both know: for down is Exoduster.Cyrus And a westward-boundrefugee; he’s an outfihearcryIancestry. at.of He’s an more’’),in nokid don’t heara I OldTown Road,can’trideIandtil the to horse my take gonna (‘‘I’m chorus its reaches song the once history,‘‘yee-hawthe agenda.’’ But of sense deep a and idiosyncrasy black young internetters branded, what with adorable kitsch, Western ance. The verses of his song flirtdeliver-believer in a be to withappears descendedfrom those millions and has NasX Lil music. powerof the found — somehow — deliverance in millions,andsomethoseofpeople