J. Rosamond Johnson, “Negro Music and Vaudeville”

J. Rosamond Johnson (below, on right) was very active and successful in minstrelsy and vaudeville in the early 20th century. In a manuscript prepared for Variety magazine, he writes, “Thanks to Variety for space to say a word about the colored performer, the unique position he has held in the world of entertainment for more than a half century. When, with his slave songs, work songs, and “Darkey Pastimes” he was the source of amusement despite his hard trials with servile conditions on the  plantations of his own southland.” (MSS 21, Box 18 Folder 6).

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