Black Performance: Minstrelsy to Ragtime

"In Harlem, men and women of color forgot their troubles and danced and reveled to the music of Coalhouse Walker, Jr. This was a music that was theirs and no one else's." (-Coalhouse Walker, Jr.; Prologue)

Music, dance, and performance have always been sources of survival for African-Americans. During slavery, African-Americans relied on negro spirituals to express their pain, experiences, and faith. "The African-American experience resonates within and all through them." (Negro Spirituals).  They were also used as a way to feel a sense of connection and community among their fellow enslaved people.

The first exposure of African-Americans in the public domain were through black-face minstrel shows, a form of entertainment introduced by whites. A minstrel show was composed of three different sections; the opening walk-around, the middle section, and the concluding section. Learn more about minstrel shows. 

Thomas D. Rice created black-face minstrelsy after an encounter in an alleyway with a homeless black man dressed in ragged clothes. After hearing the homeless black man singing "Jump Jim Crow", a song and dance developed by slaves, Rice named his first black-face minstrel character "Jim Crow".

In black-face minstrelsy, white performers assumed their idea of a black person by wearing ragged clothes, making specific speech choices, embodying their movement and actions, and covering their face with burnt cork. As these white performers assumed a black character on stage, they were able to claim and manipulate the identity of blacks, and present it to the public as authentic. (The Jim Crow Encyclopedia, Vol. 2)

As white performers manipulated black identity, several stereotypes were born: the mammy, the zip coon, the sambo, and the brute negro, among others. Ethnic Notions explores these stereotypes.

Eventually, blacks also began to participate in black-face minstrelsy. One of the most famous trios was Burt Williams, George Walker, and Aida Overton Walker. Slowly, blacks tried to gain control the discourse surrounding black identity through performance, "...African American minstrels accessed the popular entertainment stage, [and] they eventually changed the words, jokes, and look of minstrelsy, but they also maintained its premises of performing color and performing gender for the amusement and nostalgia of their audiences," (African American Performance and Theater History).

From minstrelsy evolved vaudeville, which "featured almost a dozen different artists...performing all kinds of material-- songs, comedy routines, magic..."(Vaudeville and Broadway).

The Cakewalk was a step Blacks took towards owning their art and identity. The Cakewalk was a parody of the stylized, social dances of whites. As a inverted form of minstrelsy, blacks would exaggerate and imitate the stiff carriage, lively walk, and erect spine seen in white social dances, such as the Quadrille. When whites observed blacks dancing the cakewalk, they did not realize they were the  inspiration of such an absurdly animated dance. They believed it to be authentic black dance, so they incorporated it into their performance.



"Ragtime was created and popularized by itinerant African-American musicians, many of whom did not read or write music." Ragtime music was born as a playing practice from African-American musicians improvising in brothels, saloons, and bars, but slowly began to evolve as a genre as it entered the entertainment setting of vaudeville and musical theater. It is distinguished by it's syncopation and polyrhythms. Scott Joplin is considered the "King of Ragtime". Many are familiar with his compositions "The Entertainer" and "Maple Leaf Rag".