Skip to main content

Understanding Blackface and Its Historical Context

This quiz explores the context and history of Blackface, featuring questions about key figures, performances, and cultural implications of this practice in various periods and regions.

#Blackface #History #Cultural studies #Racism #Entertainment #Civil rights

1 from that time through into the 1890s, also enjoying massive popularity in the UK and in other parts of ________.

2 Many of country's earliest stars, such as Jimmie Rodgers and ________, were veterans of blackface performance.

3 The experience of white people disguised as black people and vice-versa was further explored in 2006 in the poorly-received ________ show on FX, Black. White.

4 His resultant bestselling book, Black Like Me (1961), was influential in helping white Americans to understand the reality of ________-ism in the South during the lead-in to the civil rights era.

5 Blackface, Ku Klux Klan and African American are all:

6 In ________, in the early 1960s, a toy called Dakkochan became hugely popular.

7 In Thailand, actors darken their faces to portray the Negrito of Thailand in a popular play by King ________ (1868–1910), Ngo Pa (Thai: เงาะป่า), which has been turned into a musical and a movie.

8 What does the following picture show?  Hajji Firuz in Tehran   Bert Williams was the only black member of the Ziegfeld Follies when he joined them in 1910. Shown here in blackface, he was the highest-paid African American entertainer of his day.[48]   This postcard, published circa 1908, shows a white minstrel team. While both are wearing wigs, the man on the left is in blackface and drag.   A poster for the 1939 Broadway show The Hot Mikado using blackface imagery

9 Former South African president ________ endorsed the carnival in 1986, while it still bore the "coon" name.

10 It was through blackface performers, white and black, that the richness and exuberance of ________, humor, and dance first reached mainstream, white audiences in the U.S.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • in the 1659 English play The English Moor, noted for its use of blackface make-up, one main character implies that Blacks and Whites are created equal by God.
  • the stump speech of the blackface minstrel show was a precursor to modern stand-up comedy.
  • there has been criticism of Pokémon due to the similarity between the original Jynx character design and blackface images.
  • at its creation in 1877, the 40-strong Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels was the largest blackface minstrel troupe to have ever been formed.
  • St James's Hall, London's principal concert hall and home of the Philharmonic Society in the 19th century, had annual seasons of blackface minstrelsy.
  • blackface minstrel dancer John Diamond (pictured) won numerous "Ethiopian" dance competitions until he was defeated by a real black man known as Master Juba.
  • Charles Hicks played a key role in the formation of Brooker and Clayton's Georgia Minstrels, the first successful blackface minstrel troupe composed of all African American performers.
  • Master Juba (pictured) was the first top billing black man in a blackface minstrel show.
  • "Blue Tail Fly" or "Jimmy Crack Corn" is a blackface minstrel song dating from the 1840s, and that on the surface, it is a black slave's lament over his master's death; the subtext is that he is glad his master is dead, and may have killed him by deliberate negligence.
    • Previous Quiz Next Quiz

    Related Quizzes

    Key Events and Figures of the 13th Century: A Quiz

    #13th century #history #Mongol Empire #Crusades #European culture #Franciscan order #Cambridge #Boyana Church

    Discovering the 14th Century: A Historical Quiz

    #14th Century #History #Renaissance #Ming Dynasty #Hundred Years' War #Petrarch #Military History

    Exploring the 16th Century: Events, Figures, and Discoveries

    #history #16th century #exploration #Renaissance #Conquistadores #art #politics #religion

    Exploring the 17th Century: Key Events and Figures

    #17th century #history #empires #Mughal Empire #Ottoman Empire #Persian Empire #Taiwan #Hudson's Bay Company #Kara Mustafa #French history

    Exploring the 18th Century: A Historical Quiz

    #18th century #history #quiz #education #literature #philosophy #politics

    Significant Events of 1904

    #1904 #history #events #quiz #education

    Significant Events and Figures of 1906

    #1906 #history #chess #astronomy #civil rights #swimming #biochemistry

    Significant Events and Figures of 1911

    #1911 #history #events #figures #Nobel Prize #aviation #fire incidents #education #composers