|
Stage Name |
Birth Name | Daddy Jim Crow |
Thomas Dartmouth Rice |
Traveling Minstrels have been around along
time, they were basically traveling performers of the old Gypsy
type we think today. The minstrel show was to come around much
later and was one of the first inherent forms of Ante-bellum American
Stage entertainment. The Minstrel shows first began around February
1843 when a group of four white men from Virginia, calling themselves
the "Virginia Minstrels," who applied black cork to
their faces and performed a song-and-dance act in a small hall
in New York City.
Thomas Dartmouth Rice is considered to be the
first white minstrel man in 'Black face' ( Makeup) with
his rendition of an old crippled Cincinnati African-American by
the name of Jim Crow who sang what was called a 'Negro Ditty'
and shuffled his feet to the ditty "Weel about and turn about
and do jis so, Eb'ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow."
Rice's characterization of this Negro ditty and dance routine
in 1828 was an immediate success which took him touring all around
the country and abroad. This was to be the origin of the famous
'Jump Jim
Crow' song. |
|
Rice first introduced this dance at the Southern Theater in Louisville
Kentucky and also performed this song and dance number to audiences
in Pittsburgh. Other famous songs followed
such as 'Zip Coon' ( Turkey In The Straw.) The
Truckin' dance is
is believed to be related to the Jump Jim Crow dance that Rice
had performed. The
Warner Brothers Film short called Minstrel Days (1940) features
the story of "Jump Jim Crow" with Willie Best, Eddie
Cantor and Al Jolson.
Jim Crow meaning:
In 1883, The U.S. Supreme Court began to strike down the foundations
of the post-Civil War Reconstruction, declaring the Civil Rights
Act of 1875 unconstitutional. The Court also ruled that the Fourteenth
Amendment prohibited state governments from discriminating against
people because of race but did not restrict private organizations
or individuals from doing so. Thus railroads, hotels, Theaters,
and the like could legally practice segregation... These historic
"Jim Crow laws" were a response to the new reality that
required white supremacy to move to where it would have a legal
basis to retain control over the black population. Unfortunately,
What was started as the Governments commitment to equality but
rather 'white supremacy' and the things necessary to preserve
it. By 1899 the Court would rule Schools could be segregated and
by 1914 every Southern state had passed laws that created two
separate societies; one black, the other white. These Jim crow
laws would last up until 1954 with what is known as the "Civil
Rights Movement" which began the end of the Jim Crow Laws.
In 1857 the Morris Brothers’ Minstrels
where created. It was with this troupe that Fred Wilson introduced
the clog dance for the first time with a minstrel troupe that
same year, ( Also Dick Sands, Tim Hayes, Dick Carroll and Ben
Goldsmith introduced the clog dance with the minstrel troupes,
as well.) This proved to be a death blow for the Jig champions
domination in Minstrel show's. |
