Walking the tightrope between racial stereotypes and respectability: images of African American and Native American artists in the golden age of the circus

Abstract

The golden age of the circus coincided with especially difficult times in African American and Native American history. For African Americans, this era is known as the Nadir, a time of Jim Crow segregation, scientific racism and the most anti-African-American lynchings. Native Americans faced harsh Indian policies, shrinking reservations and the horrors of boarding schools. During this time, African American and Native American leaders used various media to combat white supremacy, uplift their communities, and reverse negative images rampant in all aspects of American culture. Especially egregious were popular images of African American and Native American people in circuses, exhibitions, and other traveling shows. These images showed people of color at best as uncivilized, child-like imbeciles to be trained and at worst as brutal savages to be constrained. Still, many African American and Native American artists found lucrative employment in circuses, Wild West shows, and other traveling venues. Those that did felt pressures from the wider white supremacist society to create demeaning images and pressures from within their own communities to promote racial uplift and assimilation. This study will explore artists who walked the tightrope between these two stressors. This article argues that while many artists of color participated in the demeaning traveling show industry, they also created opportunities and visual images that undermined white supremacy and reflected race pride and racial uplift, albeit differing from middle-class versions of the respectable.