Censoring Racial Ridicule: Irish, Jewish, and African American Struggles over Race and Representation, 1890-1930

329 Pages·2015·4.16 MB·English

by  M. Alison Kibler

censoring racial ridicule
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censoring
r acial
ridicule
Irish, Jewish, and African
American Struggles over
Race and Representation,
1890–1930
m. alison kibler
The University of North Carolina Press
chapel hill
© 2015 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Designed and set in Arno Pro and Calluna Sans by Rebecca Evans
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Committ ee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the
Council on Library Resources. The University of North Carolina Press has
been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.
Cover illustration: Courtesy of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center
of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio.
AmericanJewishArchives.org
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Kibler, M. Alison.
Censoring racial ridicule : Irish, Jewish, and African American struggles over
race and representation, 1890–1930 / M. Alison Kibler.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4696-1836-4 (pbk : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4696-1837-1 (ebook)
1. Racism and the arts — United States — History — 19th century. 2. Racism and the
arts — United States — History — 20th century. 3. Stereotypes (Social psychology)
in motion pictures. 4. Theater and society — United States — History — 19th century.
5. Theater and society — United States — History — 20th century. 6. Racism in popular
culture — United States — History — 1 9th century. 7. Racism in popular culture —
United States — History — 1 9th century. 8. United States — Ethnic relations — History —
19th century. 9. United States — E thnic relations — History — 20th century. I. Title.
NX180.R3K53 2015 305.800973 — d c23
2014035498
for dennis, john, and therese
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Contents
Acknowledgments xi
introduction 1
chapter one
The Minstrel Show and the Melee 21
Irish, Jewish, and African Americans in Popular Culture and Politics
chapter two
Practical Censorship 51
Irish American Theater Riots
chapter three
Immoral . . . in the Broad Sense 82
Censoring Racial Ridicule in Legitimate Theater
chapter four
Shylock and Sambo Censored 116
Jewish and African American Campaigns for Race- Based
Motion Picture Censorship
chapter five
Are the Hebrews to Have a Censor? 147
Jewish Censors in Chicago
chapter six
Without Fear or Favor 171
Free- Speech Advocates Confront Race- Based Censorship
conclusion 203
Notes 219
Bibliography 279
Index 301
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Illustrations
D. W. Griffi th’s The Rise and Fall of Free Speech 15
“Hebrew” comedian Joe Welch 27
Joe Weber and Lew Fields 29
African American activists objected to Ernest Hogan’s
“All Coons Look Alike to Me” 31
Ernest Hogan in his vaudeville makeup 32
Front- page coverage of the batt le against the Stage Irishman 52
The Russell Brothers in “The Irish Servant Girls” 61
Irish nationalists objected to the “brutal” caricature of an
Irish woman 76
S. Joe Brown 90
Scene from Act II of The Clansman 94
Scene from Act III of The Clansman 95
Judge Mayer Sulzberger 99
Cartoon mocking The Playboy of the Western World, William Butler
Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory 105
Joseph McGarrity 108
Joseph McGarrity with friends and family in Atlantic City 109
Rabbi Stephen Wise 141
Adolf Kraus 153
Major Metellus L. C. Funkhouser 155