Wow--I had no idea of this was the history of the lawn jockey! They were common enough when I was growing up but I was taught that they are a racist trope. A very dear--and tragically recently departed--former colleague and friend Pellom McDaniels, who was an historian of African American culture, wrote a book that got published a few ye…
Wow--I had no idea of this was the history of the lawn jockey! They were common enough when I was growing up but I was taught that they are a racist trope. A very dear--and tragically recently departed--former colleague and friend Pellom McDaniels, who was an historian of African American culture, wrote a book that got published a few years ago on the most famous jockey of the 19th century: The Prince of Jockeys: The Life of Isaac Burns Murphy. His fame was such that I assumed after hearing about Pellom's research over the years that he was the model for the lawn jockey.
Wow--I had no idea of this was the history of the lawn jockey! They were common enough when I was growing up but I was taught that they are a racist trope. A very dear--and tragically recently departed--former colleague and friend Pellom McDaniels, who was an historian of African American culture, wrote a book that got published a few years ago on the most famous jockey of the 19th century: The Prince of Jockeys: The Life of Isaac Burns Murphy. His fame was such that I assumed after hearing about Pellom's research over the years that he was the model for the lawn jockey.