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1) colleges in America face a blackface problem with many whites students using this idea as a costume and colleges do not take proper actions. (vox.xom)
2) FLorida state representative resigns after blackface photos surface (CNN.com)
3)INdiana teacher could lose job after blackface photos get released (WDR)
4) sorority sister is booted off campus for posted blackface pictures (CNN.com)
5) A elite new york school is an uproar over blackface attempts (New York times)

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Here is where I got most of my research

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National Museum of African American History and Culture

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Historian Dale Cockrell once noted that poor and working-class whites who felt "squeezed politically, economically, and socially from the top, but also from the bottom, invented minstrelsy" as a way of expressing the oppression that marked being members of the majority, but outside of the white norm. Minstrelsy, comedic performances of "blackness" by whites in exaggerated costumes and make-up, cannot be separated fully from the racial derision and stereotyping at its core. By distorting the features and culture of African Americans-including their looks, language, dance, deportment, and character-white Americans were able to codify whiteness across class and geopolitical lines as its antithesis.

The whole idea of a stereotype is to simplify. Chinua Achebe

The first minstrel shows were performed in 1830s New York by white performers with blackened faces (most used burnt cork or shoe polish) and tattered clothing who imitated and mimicked enslaved Africans on Southern plantations. These performances characterized blacks as lazy, ignorant, superstitious, hypersexual, and prone to thievery and cowardice. Thomas Dartmouth Rice, known as the "Father of Minstrelsy," developed the first popularly known blackface character, "Jim Crow" in 1830. By 1845, the popularity of the minstrel had spawned an entertainment subindustry, manufacturing songs and sheet music, makeup, costumes, as well as a ready-set of stereotypes upon which to build new performances.

Blackface performances grew particularly popular between the end of the Civil War and the turn-of-the century in Northern and Midwestern cities, where regular interaction with African Americans was limited. White racial animus grew following Emancipation when antebellum stereotypes collided with actual African Americans and their demands for full citizenship including the right to vote. The influence of minstrelsy and racial stereotyping on American society cannot be overstated. New media ushered minstrel performances from the stage, across radio and television airwaves, and into theaters. Popular American actors, including Shirley Temple, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney donned blackface, bridging the minstrel performance across generations, and making blackface (racial parody, and stereotypes) a family amusement.

Blackface and the codifying of blackness- language, movement, deportment, and character-as caricature persists through mass media and in public performances today. In addition to the increased popularity of "black" Halloween costumes, colleges and universities across the country continue to battle against student and professor blackface performances. In each instance, those facing scrutiny for blackface performances insist no malice or racial hatred was intended.

View objects in our collection related to blackface and minstrelsy.

Related Stories

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Blackface: The Birth of An American Stereotype

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Learn the history behind common African American stereotypes. #ANationsStory

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Who did it appeal to? and why it was popular? 

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Who did it appeal to? and why it was popular? 

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1) Many White Americans thought the blackface performances was entertaining
2) Many states that had limited contact with African Americans built stereotypes that collided with actually African Americans
3)Became more popular through new technology like radios and television and famous actors like Sherly temple and Judy Garland  made blackface a White American family amusement (National museum of African American history and culture)

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Home of blackface

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The first minstrel shows were performed in 1830s New York by white performers with blackened faces (most used burnt cork or shoe polish) and tattered clothing who imitated and mimicked enslaved Africans on Southern plantations. (national museum of African American history and culture)

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Blackface is a form of theatrical make-up used predominantly by non-black performers to represent a caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky on the plantation" or the "dandified coon. (wikipedia)