The issue of blackface images in yearbooks was in the news this winter, with the case of the governor of Virginia, and a pair of local Democrat & Chronicle reporters decided to go through regional college yearbooks for the years 1975-1985. They did not find any in our Saga, but there are some, just not those years. The pictures are mostly farther back, c1960 and before. They are generally in connection with minstrel show performances.
In response to all this the president asked me to chair a working group she met with this past week. Her charge to us was to examine the materials and make recommendations to her as to how to proceed. The most likely outcome perhaps is to expand on the disclaimer I already put up on some of the archival pages.
Interesting to explore this issue really. Blackface and minstrel shows are so little known now, almost taboo, and yet 60, 70 years ago they were such a commonplace. If you search the NYS Historic Newspapers database for example not only Brockport, but other schools like Geneseo and Oswego had these shows. The village newspapers are full of references to them as well.
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