Al Jolson Blackface - Was he Racist?

Those who know of Al Jolson’s relationship with “colored people” would have difficulty understanding how a man who brings him back to life, long after his fame and courage is a passing memory, is castigated for this.  At 67 years old,  Bobby Berger,  never remembered seeing him live, yet the spirit of his singing and what it meant to transform himself by putting on blackface makeup came through in his performance over decades.  But no more.

This Washington Post article with videos of his performance tells Berger’s story, and the man whom he admiringly imitates.Lets get this out in front-  Berger was an ex-Baltimore cop, who was fired a few decades ago for doing this act, but eventually was reinstated with back pay for the department denying his freedom of speech.  The last act was a benefit for those accused of the murder of Freddy Gray, and so much has changed that even some of the indicted officers don’t want to get any funding from this performance.


I write this to clarify the life of the man born Asa Yoelson in a ghetto in Lithuania in 1886, who became the most famous entertainer in the United States by the 1930s.  Wearing blackface meant something different in those days, that should be passed on to those who don’t know this.  From Wikipedia:
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Performing in blackface makeup was a theatrical convention of many entertainers at the beginning of the 20th century, having its origin in the minstrel show.^[28] Working behind a blackface mask gave the performer "a sense of freedom and spontaneity he had never known".^[14] According to film historian Eric Lott, for the white minstrel man "to put on the cultural forms of 'blackness' was to engage in a complex affair of manly mimicry.... To wear or even enjoy blackface was literally, for a time, to become black, to inherit the cool, virility, humility, abandon, or gaité de coeur that were the prime components of white ideologies of black manhood."^[29]

^{As Metaphor of mutual suffering}

Jazz historians have described Jolson's blackface and singing style as metaphors for Jewish and black suffering throughout history. Jolson's first film, The Jazz Singer, for instance, is described by historian Michael Alexander as an expression of the liturgical music of Jews with the "imagined music of African Americans," noting that "prayer and jazz become metaphors for Jews and blacks." ^[30] Playwright Samson Raphaelson, after seeing Jolson perform his stage show Robinson Crusoe, stated that "he had an epiphany: 'My God, this isn't a jazz singer', he said. 'This is a cantor!'" The image of the blackfaced cantor remained in Raphaelson's mind when he conceived of the story which led to The Jazz Singer.^[31]
Upon the film's release, the first full-length sound picture, film reviewers saw the symbolism and metaphors portrayed by Jolson in his role as the son of a cantor wanting to become a "jazz singer":

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Here’s the link to Wikipedia’s section no “His relations with African Americans”  that conveys more than natural affection, but these examples of using his fame to break barriers as itemized here:
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• "at a time when black people were banned from starring on the Broadway stage,"^[35] he promoted the play by black playwright Garland Anderson,^[36] which became the first production with an all-black cast ever produced on Broadway;

• he brought an all-black dance team from San Francisco that he tried to feature in his Broadway show;^[34]

• he demanded equal treatment for Cab Calloway, with whom he performed a number of duets in his movie The Singing Kid;

• he was "the only white man allowed into an all black nightclub in Harlem".^[34]

Al Jolson once read in the newspaper that songwriters Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, neither of whom he had ever heard of, were refused service at a Connecticut restaurant because of their race. He immediately tracked them down and took them out to dinner, "insisting he'd punch anyone in the nose who tried to kick us out!"^[37] Subsequent to their meeting, according to biographer Al Rose, Jolson and Blake became friends -

Jolson became famous and beloved, not because of the careful creation of a persona, but because he was able to express his feelings in song like no one else.  When he sang of longing for Mama, or Mammy, it wasn’t a parody, but something his fellow immigrants knew in a time when leaving home meant never to see his parents again, ever.  His painting his face black was a convention, one he embraced.

It certainly doesn't mean the same thing now, but does that override what it was in the decades of the turn of the twentieth century.  Does the meaning today, taint the life and the affections of this celebrity whose resistance to what was common racism of the time must have affected masses of Americans?  At the least, should this not be an example of how symbols can overwhelm understanding that can bring diverse groups together.

Difficult questions for difficult times.