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.