Colored Americans Day at the World's Fair - 1893

K. Shaw

August, 1893

Chicago, Illinois

The dust is unbelievable today.  Although the background documents did say that August of 1893 was the driest month in Chicago's history up until the mid-21st century, I did not factor in what the drought might mean when several hundred thousand pairs of feet were pummeling dirt paths through the Expo each day.  My dress, which started out dark blue, is now a pale shade of brown, with just a hint of navy showing here and there, and I look like I'm wearing a heavy coat of pancake makeup.  I wasted at least twenty minutes in lines for lemonade on four separate occasions just to clear the dust from my throat.  One lonely cloud drifted over and I found myself hoping for rain, even though I know the fair stayed completely dry on this day.

Today's much-anticipated "Colored Americans" celebration was organized by Frederick Douglass, former Ambassador to Haiti and the current Haitian representative to the Fair.   The event was suggested largely as a compromise measure, since the request for a permanent exhibit to celebrate the great progress of African –Americans since the Civil War was firmly denied by the Exposition's Board of Managers.   The fact that the day is on a Friday, rather than a Saturday, when fewer blacks are likely to be working, is clearly due to a fear that large numbers of black patrons will make attendance less likely by white fairgoers.  Glancing around, it seems that they were correct in that assumption, since the fair is less lily-white than I have come to expect during my trips over the past year and a half.

World's Fair Promotional Pin

I've seen a considerable number of African-Americans on the fairgrounds working in the lowest paid service positions – janitorial, grounds-keeping, and so forth – but other, more lucrative, jobs are reserved solely for whites.  While the Exposition is happy for blacks to enter the Fair as paid ticket-holders, they are required to use separate facilities and African-American performers are excluded not just from the main Exposition, but also from the Midway.   The only exception that has been made was for Nancy Green, who portrays Aunt Jemima, and who has been granted permission to serve pancakes in character for the company's exhibit.  The Dahomey Village exhibit also has black performers – around a hundred of them –
but they were imported from Africa to build a living replica of their native village. On the positive side, at least the Board of Managers avoided the stereotypical southern plantation exhibit that will be featured at the 1901 World's Fair, where African American performers will be hired to sing slave songs and pose as "uncles," mammies," and "pickaninnies."

The nation's community of black reformers is largely split on whether Colored Americans Day was a good idea.  Douglass argued that it was better than nothing, while others, including Ida Barnett Wells, vehemently opposed the celebration and refused to participate.  The all-white Board of Managers didn't help matters much with their publicity for the occasion, which included an announcement that they would provide 2,000 watermelons for the attendees – and based on Ida B. Wells' scathing editorial on the subject, this was considered an insult even back in 1893.  

Frederick Douglass and grandson, Joseph (1893)

At three in the afternoon, Douglass took the stage along with several white abolitionists, including Isabella Beecher Hooker, the sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose famous book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, played a key role in convincing many white Americans that slavery should be ended.  The agenda included a selection of classical music, performed by a number of renowned African-American artists, including Douglass's own grandson, Joseph Douglass, who achieved international fame as a violinist – a skill he first learned from his grandfather.  

A heckler interrupted Douglass a few minutes into the speech to ask him about "the Negro problem."  I caught a glimpse of the heckler's face, and his smug smile made me think his goal was to rattle Douglass by throwing him off his prepared remarks.  If that was his intent, he failed.  

"There is no negro problem," Douglass said emphatically to the audience of nearly three thousand people. "The problem is whether the American people have honesty enough, loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough to live up to their own Constitution.  A statesman has recently argued that the only solution of this "negro problem" is the removal of the negro to Africa. I say to this man that we negroes have made up our minds to stay just where we are.  We intend that the American people shall learn the great lesson of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God from our presence among them."

"During the war," he continued, "we were eyes to your blind, legs to your lame, shelter to the shelterless among your sons.  Have you forgotten that now?  Today we number 8,000,000 people.  Today a desperate effort is being made to blacken the character of the negro and to brand him a moral monster.  In fourteen States of the Union, wild mobs have taken the place of law.  They hang, shoot, burn men of my race without justice and without right.  Today the negro is barred out of almost every reputable and decent employment."

"But stop.  Look at the progress the negro has made in thirty years!" Douglass leaned forward, his white hair falling around his face, pointing into the crowd. "We have come up out of Dahomey unto this.  Measure the negro.  But not by the standard of the splendid civilization of the Caucasian.  Bend down and measure him -- measure him--from the depths out of which he has risen."

Official Exposition Photograph of Dahomey Villagers

After the many musical numbers and dramatic presentations had ended, Douglass spoke briefly about the divide in the black community over the way they had been treated at the Exposition.  "Apparently they want us to be represented by the music and by the civilization of the Dahomey.  They have filled the fair with the sound of barbaric music, and with the sights of barbaric rites, and denied to colored Americans any representation."

A stack of pamphlets near the exit, entitled The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World's Columbian Exposition, make it clear that there was really little disagreement among leaders of the movement.  Douglass, Ida B. Wells and others contributed to the booklet, and while they may differ on whether it was better to take advantage of this meager opportunity for publicity offered by the Exposition's officials, both sides are deeply angered by the exclusion of African-Americans and misrepresentation of their cultural achievements.

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Learn more about race and the Chicago World's Fair:

• Bancroft, Hubert.  The Book of the Fair. 1893.
• Ohio Historical Society. Cleveland Gazette. "World's Fair Watermelons."
• Illinois State Library. World's Columbian Exposition of 1893.
• Reed, Christopher R.  "The Black Presence at the "White City." 

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Photo Credits:

• Author's Photo.  World's Fair promotional pin, circa 1893.   
• Frederick Douglas Family Foundation. Frederick Douglass and grandson.  
• Bancroft, Hubert.  Dahomey Villagers. The Book of the Fair. 1893.

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