Who knew that the good people of the Commonwealth of Virginia had so much blackface in their all too recent past?
Before we northerners get to feeling all superior, maybe we ought to check our own closets. I’ll bet more than a few contain yearbooks and programs from UVM that date back before 1969.
That’s the year in which the Green Mountain State’s most respected University ended its tradition of the “Kakewalk:” an annual event dating from 1893, in which costumed students in blackface strutted and high-kicked their way through some semblance of a minstrel show.
Even though the offensive nature of the event was remarked upon in print as early as the 1950”s, it took that esteemed institution until the height of the Civil Rights movement (1969) to finally kill it dead.
I would guess that more than a few 70+ year old alumni who performed in the Kakewalk shows will feel an urgent need to burn rubbish this weekend.
James Loewen documents this long sad chapter in UVM history here: https://cdi.uvm.edu/book/uvmcdi-60210#page/1/mode/1up
Fascinating reading… I was glad to read that an alumni from Swanton had called on UVM to end Kake Walk in 1950. The resistance was long-lived.
Yeah! How about that? Swanton was the leading voice of justice! Does a Franklin County gal proud!