Senior ‘Plantation Party’

Senior ‘Plantation Party’

Madison College, G. Tyler Miller, blackface, stereotypes, racism, newspaper

Printed in a 1954 issue of Madison College's newspaper, The Breeze, this article demonstrates the strained relationship between blacks and whites in 1950s America--college campuses not exempt. Made up in ‘blackface’, white students held a party with a play and musical numbers deemed a ‘Plantation Party.” The article accompanying the image is littered with racial insensitivity as well, using the terms “pickaninnies,” and “tar baby.” President Miller and his wife were identified as the “proprietors of the plantation,” who watched the party from “the porch of the plantation manor.”

The Breeze

The Breeze

James Madison University Libraries and Educational Technologies

5-Nov-54

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