While working on yesterday’s Minnie Mullins post, I came across these two news items. It was jarring to see “Negress” used in the first article and then a week later Minnie declaring, I’m sure to the amusement of the newspaper people, that she was not a “Negress”. But, good job Aunt Minnie!
“Negress” has always been a negative descriptor and one that I didn’t remember seeing in the paper growing up in Detroit. I decided to do some looking and see how often the Berrien Post, which is in Benton Harbor, Michigan, used the word. It was so frequently used that I lost count. Most of the time is was used in articles about African American women who had been accused of or found guilty of crimes. There were a few items about aged women celebrating their 11th birthday where the descriptor was used. As time went on and we went from the 1920, through the 1930s and onto the 1950s and 1960s, it began to be used less for criminal behavior, and just used in general, as in “12 year old Negress wins scholarship.” or when advertising movies. As in this bizarre ad for Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I was surprised to see usage going on up to 1969 and thinning out in the early 70s, to disappear finally by the late 70s.
Onward and upward! Tomorrow we have “O”. Let me go see who that will be.