SONGS OF THE SOUTH

Genre: Soundie

Year Published: 1940s

Format: 16mm

Description:

Note: this film contains racist portrayals in blackface makeup (1:50) that will be offensive to a modern viewer. See below for more information.

This 1946 film of "soundies" or music videos was released by Castle Films under the title "Songs of the South". This compilation of songs features a medley of “Showboat melodies” performed by The Marshalls including "I come from Alabama", "Way down upon the Swanee River" and "Camptown Races". It also includes the Dixiairs performing "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee" (2:51) and "Dear old Southland". The film includes imagery of Mississippi river steamboats. At (9:37) the "Golden Slippers" medley with "Dixieland" features African American singers and dancers in plantation type clothing, either depicting stereotypical happy sharecroppers or slaves. At (10:40), they are shown playing with dice.

Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-black people to portray a caricature of a black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky on the plantation" or the "dandified coon". In the United States, blackface declined in popularity beginning in the 1940s and into the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and was generally considered highly offensive, disrespectful, and racist by the turn of the 21st century, though the practice (or similar-looking ones) continues in other countries.