Twin City Observer

Proposed 7 Minstrel Show Rapped By Community

"How archaic!" That was the first reaction of some persons in the community when it was learned this week that the Boy Scout troop at Incarnation Catholic Church planned to present a minstrel show this coming weekend.

"I thought that obsolete form o entertainment had gone out of style with pantaloons," commented one source. "Interracial organizations all over the country have been working for years to ban that type of offensive show from the stage, movies, television, and every other media of entertainment."

First complaint against the scheduled minstrel show was registered Monday with the Minneapolis Urban League. League officials referred the matter to the Catholic Interracial Council of the Twin Cities for action.

When contacted by an officer of the Catholic Council parish priests were concerned to discover that the proposed show was creating a disturbance in the community. They said their Negro parishioners had voiced no objection as far as they knew.

"We goofed on that," admitted one when contacted by this newspaper.

A reliable source said the show

was an annual event and had been presented several years without any community comment.

Robert L. Williams, executive director of the Minneapolis Urban League, said, "The minstrel show is not acceptable to most minority groups and other forward thinking citizens because it presents an exaggerated and derogatory stereotype of the American Negro and it offends the sensibilities of all who are working toward better racial understanding."

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