Birth of an Industry: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Rise of American Animation by Nicholas Sammond (review)

Note African American Review 49.2 (Summer 2016): 174-176© 2016 Johns Hopkins University Press and Saint Louis University 174 entitled“TheLook StoryanditsAftermath,”Andersonexploresanothercrime againstTillandthecivilrightsmovement.Havingbeenclearedofmurderand kidnappingcharges,MilamandBryantsoldtheirstoryfor$3,500tocontroversial journalistWilliamBradfordHuie,whopublisheditinLook onJanuary24,1956 underthesensationaltitle“TheTruthabouttheEmmettTillKilling.”Knownfor his“checkbookjournalism,”HuiewantedtheNAACPtocontributetothekillers’ paymentfortheirinterviews.Eagertocapitalizeonthesensationalismofthestory, HuiealsorepeatedCarolyn’sversionofwhathappened,continuingtoportrayTill asafourteen-year-oldrapist.FurtherfuelingthecontroversiesattachedtoTill’s murder,SimeonWrightdisputedthebrothers’accountinLook inhismemoir Simeon’s Story: An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till (2010).Trying tofurtherprofitfromTill’stragedy,Huieplannedtoproduceafeaturefilm,which nevermaterialized.Overtheyears,though,importantdocumentariesaboutTill’s lifeandmurderhavebeenmade,andin2016atleastfourfilmsbasedonTillwillbe written,scored,directed,and/orproducedbyprominentAfricanAmericanartists.1 Anderson’sconcludingchapterrightfullyturnstoTill’slegacy.Obviously, hisdeathdidnotinitiatethecivilrightsmovement,but“itgalvanizedapeoplelike feweventshave”(358).AsWheelerParkerobserved,“EmmettTillspokelouderin deaththanhewouldhaveifhehadlived”(356).WhenJesseJacksonaskedRosa Parkswhyshedefiedsegregation,sheconfessed,“IthoughtofEmmettTilland couldn’tgoback”(221).Norcouldcountlessothercivilrightsprotestersand martyrswhooverthelastsixtyyearsandmorehavebeeninspiredbyTill.Justifiably, hehasbeenenshrinednexttoDr.KingintheCivilRightsMonumentinMontgomery. AlthoughthefirstcivilrightslawsinceReconstructionwaspassedin1957because ofTill’smurderandtheoutrageousacquittalofhismurderers,thesignalpieceof civilrightslegislationbearinghisnamemaybetheEmmettTillUnsolvedCivil RightsCrimesActof2008,empoweringthefederalgovernmenttoopencoldcases goingbackdecades,finallybringingjusticetovictimsofracialhatred.Anderson’s comprehensivehistorywillalsostandasafittingmemorialtotheboyfromChicago whowillneverdie. 1. Documentaries about Till include Keith Beauchamp’s The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till (2005); Stanley Nelson’s The Murder of Emmett Till (PBS, 2003); and Ed Bradley’s coverage on Oct. 24, 2004 of the case for the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes. Forthcoming films about Till include an HBO miniseries produced by Jay-Z and Will Smith; a movie simply entitled Till produced by Whoopi Goldberg; a drama based on Mamie Till-Mobley’s Death of Innocence and produced by Chaz Ebert; and another film based on Till-Mobley and David Barr III’s play The State of Mississippi and the Face of Emmett Till to be directed by James Moll. Nicholas Sammond. Birth of an Industry: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Rise of American Animation. Durham: Duke UP, 2015. 400 pp. $94.95. Reviewed by Christopher P. Lehman, St. Cloud State University InrecentyearsthehistoriographyofAmericananimationhassignificantly expanded.Almostfiftyyearsago,pioneeringscholarsJoeAdamsonandMichael Barrierinterviewedagingformeranimatorsoftheatricalshortcartoonsofthe1930s and’40s.Theninthelate1970s,Barrier,scholarLeslieCabarga,andfilmcritic LeonardMaltinledthehistoriography’snextphase—surveysofthestudiosthat producedthosefilms.Bytheendofthetwentiethcentury,authorsfocusedon Bookreviews_Bookreviews 6/14/2016 3:11 PM Page 174 175 ReviewS specifictrendsinanimation,fromcensorshipinKarlCohen’sForbidden Animation andethnicityinChristopherP.Lehman’sThe Colored Cartoon tomodern-artstylization inAmidAmidi’sCartoon Modern.NicholasSammond’snewbook,Birth of an Industry: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Rise of American Animation, expandsontheblackface trendthatLehmandiscussedbygiving...