Blackface performance – or minstrel shows – might seem like relics of the 19th century. But these racist traditions stuck around much longer, including at the University of Vermont.
Today on Vermont Edition, we'll listen back to our conversation from April with the scholar Rhae Lynn Barnes. Her latest book is “Darkology: Blackface and the American Way of Entertainment.”
Barnes spent more than a decade gathering material for the book. She uncovered evidence of blackface performance from nearly every corner of the country…lasting all the way through the mid 1900s.
In her book, she takes us to the campus of the University of Vermont. UVM fraternity members donned blackface during winter carnival, in a tradition lasted more than 70 years.
