Museum highlights
Lithograph, about 1900
Image reference DX1779B
This advertisement uses both the Mammy and Coon caricatures to sell the product.
The Mammy caricature is the most well known and enduring racial caricature of African American women. The caricature depicts an obese, coarse, maternal figure with a wide grin and hearty laugh, who is a loyal servant. It was used as proof that Black women were content, even happy, enslaved.
The Coon caricature traditionally depicts Black men as being simple, lazy and too cynical to change their lowly positions. However by the 1900s, Coons were increasingly identified with young urban Black men who were seen as disrespectful to whites.
On display in the 'Legacies: racism and discrimination' section of the museum.