PhD student Myles Sullivan recently published an article “Amateur Minstrel Shows and Blackface Amusements at the University of Florida in the Jim Crow Era” in the Florida Historical Quarterly (vol. 99, no. 3&4). His research focused on a series of annual blackface minstrel shows at the University of Florida between 1914 and 1920 through digitized collections of The Florida Alligator, the student newspaper, along with recorded oral histories and yearbooks. These minstrel shows were originally hosted as a fundraiser for the school’s athletic association to build bleacher seating at the football and baseball field. Moreover, at a time when UF was exclusively designed for white males, these shows utilized students acting as blackface cariactures of African Americans to promote the school across the state when it was a newly-founded institution. With that, Myles explored the local construction and education of race concepts performed by students in these amateur shows at a time of increased racial violence in Florida, including deadly community-organized acts of lynching and race riots.
To learn more, his work was recently featured on Florida Frontiers, the weekly radio magazine of the Florida Historical Society syndicated across the state, which can be accessed online: https://myfloridahistory.org/frontiers/radio/program/456. Additionally, in November 2021, his oral presentation on this research won first place at UF’s Graduate Research Symposium for the social sciences and humanities category.