The Jefferson Literary and Debating Society hosted a panel discussion last night entitled "Blackface and the First Amendment" to address both historical and constitutional issues surrounding blackface.
The panel was purposely timed to occur just prior to Halloween, about one year after the controversial blackface incident at a joint Halloween party thrown by Kappa Alpha and Zeta Psi fraternities, said Wyeth Ruthven, programming director for the Center for the Study of Race and Law and Jefferson Society member.
The Center, founded last spring to facilitate discussion of racial issues and the law, and to increase dialogue between the Law School and the rest of the University community, co-sponsored the event along with the Law for Us Student Mentoring Program, Ruthven said.
"The panel is meant to explore two questions: The historical context of blackface and why it is offensive and [whether or not] blackface is considered protected speech under the First Amendment," he said.
Panel organizers said they aimed to frame the debate on blackface and provide some background to contextualize the controversy.
"If not malice, then there is a lot of ignorance surrounding blackface," Ruthven said. "We want to discuss what blackface means in our history -- and it has a long and ignoble history."
In addition to focusing on the historical context of blackface, the panel also highlighted current controversies surrounding the issue.
"One other component of the panel is to inform students of what happened [last Halloween] and to make sure that everyone is aware that these things continue to happen around the country," Jefferson Society Vice President Peter Milligan said.
Panelists included Law School Prof. Robert O'Neil, director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, and English Prof. Stephen Railton, who teaches an English course on race relations.
The panel began with a Power Point presentation by Railton on the history of blackface from the mid-nineteenth century minstrel shows to early twentieth century vaudeville to the present.
Railton's presentation included pictures of various minstrel show playbills and popular illustrations
"The biggest problem is the claim that African Americans were happy as slaves because their simple needs were fully met by slavery," Railton said. "They were depicted as not fully human."
Following Railton's presentation, Ruthven displayed joint Halloween party depicting one person dressed in blackface as Uncle Sam and two others dressed in blackface as tennis players Venus and Serena Williams.
Upon completion of the slideshow portion of the panel, O'Neil gave a brief synopsis of four recent court cases dealing with whether or not blackface is considered protected speech under the First Amendment.
In three of the cases, the courts ruled in favor of the blackface participants, and in one case the court ruled against the person dressed in blackface.
O'Neil concluded that in the cases where blackface was employed to impart significance to an audience, then it was protected by the First Amendment.
"Blackface is not always protected," O'Neil said. "If it is conveying a public message, then it is protected"
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