Historians Say Black Lawn Jockey Has Been Misunderstood

[matcom]

<snip>

He strides toward you, dwarflike: Please take this . . . this empty ring . . . this lantern . . . this hand. . . .

He watches you, eyes baked in the sun, as if waiting for a reply.

He says something about race, without saying a word.

Driving along the outskirts of Washington on a late summer afternoon, you sometimes spot a head peeping out of a ragged patch of black-eyed Susans, and you wonder: What is that lawn jockey doing there? Who put him there? Why?

Plaster saints -- we know what those stand for. On a more whimsical note, the same goes for the garden gnome, the stag, the Dutch girl with the fishing rod.

But the lawn jockey? He's a ghost from the days of plantations and magnolias, fox hunts and manorial estates.

To some, particularly African Americans, the lawn jockey is a pint-size monument to repugnant stereotypes, a holdover from the days of slavery and Jim Crow, an artifact of racial prejudice alongside Aunt Jemima.

But others, including some historians and collectors of African American memorabilia, say the lawn jockey has been misunderstood. They say his origins can be traced to a legend of faithful duty during the American Revolution. They say he guided slaves to freedom on the underground railroad. His appearance has evolved over time, reflecting changes in the stature of blacks in U.S. society.


more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/16/AR2006091600851_pf.html

[xchrom]

1. hmmmph -- i don't it's misunderstood.

[Zomby Woof]

2. I'll take a drive to Beverly Hills

Just before dawn

An' knock the little jockeys

Off the rich people's lawn

An' before they get up

I'll be gone, I'll be gone

Before they get up

I'll be knocking the jockeys off the lawn

Down in the dew


-- Frank Zappa, "Uncle Remus"

[idgiehkt]

3. I think they're reaching a little...

"Then in 1983, while retracing his ancestor's journey on the underground railroad, Blockson made a startling discovery: A lawn jockey had shepherded slaves to freedom.

In a 1984 National Geographic cover story on the underground railroad, Blockson told how the wife of U.S. District Judge Benjamin Piatt had tied a flag to a lawn jockey as a signal to fleeing slaves that it was safe to stop there.

Blockson also came across the Revolutionary War legend of Jocko. The story goes that a 9-year-old New Jersey farm boy named Jocko sneaked out of his house to find his father, a freed slave who had enlisted with George Washington's army.

The boy wound up in an encampment on Christmas Eve, before Washington's crossing of the Delaware. Waiting for his father's return, the boy volunteered to care for the general's horse during a blizzard. The next morning, Washington discovered that the boy had frozen to death, his hands still clinging to the horse's reins.

Earl Koger Sr., an African American publisher and insurance executive from Baltimore, recorded the tale in a 1976 illustrated children's book, "Jocko: A Legend of the American Revolution."

Whatever.

I thought it was funny the way Outkast used them in Hey Ya...I think alot of people missed the joke though, I remember reading a review of the video in Entertainment Weekly where the reviewer seemed perplexed at Dre's backup singer characters, saying they were 'dressed inexplicably in equestrian garb'... :rofl:

oh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dvt1-Ju3yM

[William Bloode]

4. Our congressman Cass Ballenger,

Actually has one, or had one on his lawn. He got so much heat he painted it white. Not enough morality to actually remove it, but he did paint it.

[noonwitch]

5. I think painting their faces white is one of the best pranks ever!

Don't destroy them, just paint their faces white!

I think John Amos' character has a white one in "Coming to America"

[tigereye]

6. usually they are painted white

I've rarely seen an AA one.



I think folks are reaching a bit on this one, though.

[idgiehkt]

7. they are fairly common down here

Black ones. I don't know much about why one wants a statue of a jockey on a lawn anyway, black or white. It's a mystery to me. Gnomes, I can understand...

[tigereye]

12. I suppose in an odd way they are one version of

Pink Flamingos, or those awful concrete lions.... just a decoration....


(personally, I would rather see FU dogs, or funky sculpture....) ;)

[KittyWampus]

13. You understand GNOMES? Please explain them to me then

have you ever seen 'The Full Monty'?

[bicentennial_baby]

9. I've seen plenty here in Massachusetts...

Weird, no? :shrug:

[tigereye]

11. that's odd

I wouldn't have expected it.... I am always kinda shocked when I see an AA one.

maybe someone with some actual historical knowledge will come along and enlighten us as to whether the history of the jockey is accurate....

[LynneSin]

8. Well according to Saxby Chambliss the south would have won....

...if they had better intelligence.

People will make the weirdest shit up!

[bullwinkle428]

10. Raving Bushbots on my street had a black lawn jockey in

my old neighborhood (state of Iowa) before I moved to my current residence. I'm using the "Bush/Cheney" and "W the President" stickers on the backs of their vehicles as proof of their Bushbotedness!