The History Of Rabbit Foot Minstrels, An African American Minstrel & Variety Touring Show (YouTube video & article excerpts)

MS Blues Trail, Dec. 18, 2012

During the first half of the 20th century, the African American entertainers of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels played a major role in spreading the blues via tours across the South. Minstrel shows presented a wide range of comedy routines, skits, and song-and-dance numbers, and always featured a marching band. Notable members included Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Ida Cox, Louis Jordan, and Rufus Thomas.
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post showcases a YouTube video about the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and presents several article excerpts about the history of that minstrel group and other African American minstrel performers.
The content of this post is presented for historical and cultural purposes. All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those African Americans performers named and unnamed in this video and these articles.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
**** ARTICLE EXCERPTS These excerpts are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.
Excerpt #1
From http://exhibits.lib.usf.edu/exhibits/show/minstrelsy/jimcrow-to-jolson/african-american-performers "African American Minstrel Performers

Unlike the majority of white blackface performers in the 1800s who were born in Northern cities prior to the Civil War, most African American blackface minstrel performers were born after the Civil War and in Southern cities. However, the differences between white and African American minstrel performers do not stop there. Although the age of urban industrialization brought great opportunity for whites in America, according to Karen Sotiropoulos, “for black Americans, the 1890s ushered in a decade of shrinking possibilities, and artists and activists alike desperately sought any avenue for advancement.” African American artists saw their chance for advancement and financial security on the minstrel stage. These artists migrated out of the South and traveled to the West and New York City and formed minstrel groups who advertised their authentic blackness as a selling point to Northern audiences.

Like their white counterparts before them, they “blackened up,” sang, danced, and discussed provocative issues like sex in their shows. The structure of their performances and their removal of 19th century Victorian conventions was typical for all minstrel shows at the time. However, black minstrel performers felt the added responsibility to counter the stereotypes of black identity as laughable, primitive and overly sensual, leading them to develop a self-presentation on stage that balanced racist stereotypes and political commentary. African American blackface performers were also very aware of their off-stage public presentation and conducted themselves in a way to oppose the fictional representations of blacks they performed onstage. Their performances appealed to white audiences but also catered to the black middle class primarily because of the performers’ connection with activist organizations, publications and presentations. Black performers’ association with these groups and their popularization with white audiences allowed them to “transcend local vaudeville stages to bring their art to Broadway and beyond."

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Excerpt #2
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rabbit%27s_Foot_Company "The Rabbit's Foot Company, also known as the Rabbit('s) Foot Minstrels and colloquially as "The Foots", was a long-running minstrel and variety troupe that toured as a tent show in the American South between 1900 and the late 1950s. It was established by Pat Chappelle, an African-American entrepreneur in Tampa, Florida.

After his death in 1911, Fred Swift Wolcott bought the company. He was the white owner of a festival touring group in South Carolina. Wolcott was owner and manager of the company until 1950.

[...]

Chappelle stated, late in 1902, that he had "accomplished what no other Negro has done – he has successfully run a Negro show without the help of a single white man." As his business grew, he was able to own and manage multiple tent shows, and the Rabbit's Foot Company traveled to as many as sixteen states in a season. Chappelle was known for creating exciting shows, often coordinated with parades, or parades were organized around his show's appearances, and the Rabbit's Foot Company drew large crowds. The shows included minstrel performances, dancers, circus acts including "daring aerialists", comedy, musical ensembles, drama and classic opera.^[7] The show was known as one of the few "authentic negro" vaudeville shows around, as all its performers were African American. It traveled most successfully in the southeast and southwest, and also to Manhattan and Coney Island in New York.^[8] Chappelle also established an all-black baseball team, which toured with the company and played the local team in each city the company visited. The team operated until at least 1916.^[

By 1904, the Rabbit's Foot show featured more than 60 quality performers,^[9] had expanded to fill three Pullman railroad carriages, and was describing itself as "the leading Negro show in America". For the 1904–1905 season, the company included week-long stands in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland. Two of its most popular performers were the singing comedian Charles "Cuba" Santana and the trombonist Amos Gilliard. After the latter moved to Rusco and Holland's Georgia Minstrels, he claimed that Chappelle and his brothers had threatened him at gunpoint before throwing him off the company train.

Performer William Rainey brought his young bride, Gertrude – later known as "Ma Rainey" – to join the company in 1906.<sup>"...

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Excerpt #3
From http://www.mississippibluestravellers.com/mississippi-blues-trail/rabbit-foot-minstrels-port-gibson-mississippi/
"</sup>Mississippi Blues Trail marker for the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, Port Gibson, Mississippi

The marker reads:

“RABBIT FOOT MINSTRELS – During the first half of the 20th century, the African American entertainers of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels played a major role in spreading the blues via tours across the South. Founded in 1900, the “Foots” were headquartered in Port Gibson between 1918 and 1950 under owner F.S. Wolcott. Notable members included Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Ida Cox, Louis Jordan, and Rufus Thomas.”

Other Rabbit Foot Minstrels performers included Sid Hemphill, Big Joe Williams and Clarence “Gatemouth” Moore."...
-snip-
The pancocojams posts on W. C. Handy's 1914 song "Saint Louis Blues" https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/10/saint-louis-blues-1914-lyrics-by-w-c.html includes the lyrics for that song. One of the lines in that song is "You ought to see dat stovepipe brown of mine".

That line led me to research that phrase, which led me to articles about Daddy Stovepipe, the earliest or one of the earliest Bluesmen who was recorded. The http://www.thebluestrail.com/artists/dstove.htm article on Daddy Stovepipe indicates that he was associated with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels.

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