The Legacy of Blackface: Understanding Performance, Posters, and Public Memory

In 1828, white actor and playwright Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice rose to prominence through his racist performance of the fictional Black character Jim Crow. His success helped establish blackface minstrelsy as one of the most popular forms of American entertainment in the 19th century—and one whose influence would extend far beyond the stage and well into the next century.

In minstrelsy, white performers appeared in blackface—applying black makeup and exaggerated features to create characters that relied heavily on racist stereotypes to portray Blackness through appearance, speech, and behavior. Over time, Black performers also entered the minstrel tradition, navigating and engaging with the form in profound and varied ways. As minstrelsy evolved, its representation on posters and other forms of printed ephemera evolved too, helping to circulate and reinforce its imagery within American popular culture.

In this moving and complex conversation, cultural historian Eric Lott, jazz historian Jerome Jennings, curator Dominique Jean-Louis, and Act Black curator Es-pranza Humphrey will examine the enduring legacy of blackface minstrelsy across performance and visual culture. Together, they will explore how Black and white performers participated in and were represented through minstrel traditions, as well as how these representations evolved as the practice moved from the stage to the screen.  

Drawing on his seminal study Love & Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class, Lott will discuss the origins and evolution of minstrelsy in relation to cultural appropriation and white fascination with Black culture. Jennings will interpret the practice through its musical and lyric legacy, exploring how a commercial framework was laid for American consumption. Jean-Louis will interpret the importance of considering blackface and material culture while Humphrey will bring these histories into conversation with observations of visual presentation and public memory, inviting visitors to consider how images of blackface minstrelsy have been preserved, interpreted, and uncovered in America.

Please note: Museum doors for this program will open at 6:15pm. If you’d like to explore the galleries before the event, we encourage you to arrive during regular museum hours.

Your ticket to the talk does not include general museum admission before the program. Please visit our website for current admission pricing and information.

Eric Lott teaches American Studies at the City University of New York Graduate Center.  He is the author of Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class (Oxford UP, 1993; 20th Anniversary ed., 2013), from which Bob Dylan took the title for his 2001 album “Love and Theft”; The Disappearing Liberal Intellectual (Basic Books, 2006), and Black Mirror: The Cultural Contradictions of American Racism (Harvard UP, 2017), a study of race, culture, and fantasy across the long twentieth century.  Lott has appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, CBS Sunday Morning, Turner Classic Movies, C-Span Book TV, Al Jazeera TV, and various radio shows and podcasts.  He is finishing two books on popular music and social insurgency, If Hooks Could Kill and Pleasant Valley Sunday.

Dominique Jean-Louis, Ph.D, is the Chief Historian of the Center for Brooklyn History at the Brooklyn Public Library. Among the exhibitions she has curated are The Battle of Brooklyn: Fought and Remembered, Trace/s: Family History Research and the Legacy of Slavery in Brooklyn, and a pop-up exhibition, Memories Matter, in the Euclid Avenue subway station as a collaboration with the MTA’s Vacant Unit Activation Program. Previously, she held the position of Associate Curator of History Exhibitions at the New York Historical. She received her Ph.D in US History from New York University, with her doctoral research focusing on race, ethnicity, and immigration in post-Civil Rights Era Brooklyn schools. Dominique regularly writes and lectures on Blackness in America, schools and education, and New York City history.

Jerome Jennings is a drummer, bandleader, sideman, and Emmy Award winning composer. He has played with numerous jazz luminaries such as Sonny Rollins, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Wynton Marsalis, and Christian McBride. His film composition credits include scoring the music for Louis Massiah’s film TCB: The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing which debuted at the 2025 Black Star Film Festival and received the Best Feature Documentary Jury Award. In 2024 he formed the group Jerome Jennings & iLL Philosophy, a dynamic sonic experience that brings together jazz, hip hop, and electronic music. Jerome teaches jazz drums at Princeton University and jazz history at Montclair State University.  

Es‑pranza Humphrey is the Assistant Curator of Collections at Poster House where her research centers on Black performance, fashion, and visual culture. Her scholarship on the graphic language of the Black Panther Party has been featured in the New Yorker, on NPR, and on ABC’s Here and Now as well as in several international publications. Her current exhibition Act Black: Posters from Black American Stage and Screen explores Black American theater and film posters from the 1870s to the 1940s.

Accessibility Note: Masks are available free of charge at the museum. Assistive listening devices and stools are available. ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or a CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) is also available upon request. Please contact access@posterhouse.org or (914) 295-2387 to request interpretation services and to address any other accessibility needs. For other event-related questions, please contact events@posterhouse.org.