black face, performing on stage in blackface and pretending to be black. again the pretense went on that the presentation that was given by these comics was that blacks were ignorant, stupid, unable to deal with life in a serious manner and that they were funny. they were funny because they were black. that was the predominant presentation or portrayal of blacks at this point. blacks after slavery eventually see themselves. here is where we begin to seek african-american humor began to emerge. these performers like ernest hogan and various other performers come along and start real satire to this humor which before only portrayed or presented blacks as being

blackface makeup begins to disappear. you have the presentation of blacks as being stupid in movies and so forth. in silent movies, the ignorant black, various other actors and actresses coming along later. you had hattie mcdaniel and comic servants that came along. you still had blacks portrayed as submissive, ignorant and incapable of taking part in american life. wasn't until the 1950s that african-american humor starts to emerge as we know it now it you have red fox. the paul casey russell and others. these people start to deal with the humor that had been hidden all along. that tumor was alive in african-american communities but had not been presented to the american public. then you start to get this. from them you get a gradual emergence of what you know now. you get bill cosby, dick gregory who deals with political humor in 1961. from that point on you move up to richard pryor who i consider the person who opened a door entirely because richard pryor started to deal with every aspect of that african-american humor