| Author Name: | Leab, Daniel J. |
|---|---|
| Date: | 1973, March |
| Journal: | Political Science Quarterly |
| Volume: | vol. 88, no. 1 |
| Topic: | Race and Film |
| Pages: | 53-70 |
As the author of this article shows, unflattering and vicious stereotypes of Negroes are as old as cinema itself and were probably influenced the most by the depiction of blacks in the minstrel shows and in vaudeville. The author shows that during the 1890's-1915 films portrayed blacks as a "menace, a dancing machine, a comic stooge, a faithful retainer, a cheerful flunky, a tainted unfortunate, or as ignorant savages", the opposite of values esteemed by white Americans.