This historian dug up the hidden history of 'amateur' blackface in America

"Minstrel became so popular in the 1800s that the stars began publishing "step-by-step guides" explaining how amateurs could create their own shows. By the end of the century, amateur minstrel performances became one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the U.S. Many groups, including fraternal orders, PTAs, police and firemen's associations and soldiers on military bases, put on their own shows."

"During the Great Depression, Barnes notes that President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration sought to "preserve American heritage" by promoting blackface. As part of the effort, she says, the government distributed lists of "top minstrel plays that they recommended to schools, to local charities, to colleges.""

"Barnes credits the civil rights era and especially mothers with helping de-popularize blackface in the 1970s, first in schools and then in the larger culture."

Historian Rhae Lynn Barnes discovered that librarians had hidden primary sources on blackface minstrelsy due to concerns about KKK misuse. Her research reveals that minstrel shows—performances depicting exaggerated racist portrayals of Black people—became extraordinarily popular in the 1800s, with stars publishing instructional guides enabling amateur productions. By century's end, fraternal organizations, PTAs, military bases, and other groups regularly performed these shows. During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration actively promoted blackface as part of preserving American heritage, distributing recommended minstrel plays to schools and colleges. Roosevelt even co-wrote a blackface script for children with polio. The civil rights era and mothers' activism proved instrumental in de-popularizing blackface performances, first in schools during the 1970s and subsequently throughout American culture.

Read at www.npr.org