Blake’s Great Piano Palace on Washington St, Boston (c1890)

Jim Crow Era Trade Cards

 

Brightly colored trade cards were widely distributed business cards, which often used images of African Americans, nearly all of them degrading, stereotypical, and racist. By satirizing African Americans’ appearance, speech, and actions, white Americans internalized an attitude of racial superiority; much like minstrelsy.

 

(Courtesy of Duane Lucia)

 

Done