What is the history of blackface in Quebec?

This story was first published as part of CBC Montreal's Real Talk on Race series in 2016.

More than a century before Quebec'srecent blackface controversies, Montrealers were filling local theatres to take in performances by blackface minstrels.

Though many see minstrel shows musical comedy performanceswhere white actors painted their faces black to caricatureblack people as strictly an American tradition, researchers say they were popular in Quebec and the rest of Canada from the late19thcentury into the1950s.

"It might have started there, but we made it our own," said CherylThompson, a lecturerin Canadian studies at the University of Toronto.

'Why don't I know this?'

While a PhDstudent at McGill,Thompsonscoured photo and printcollections ofMontreal'sMcCord Museum and found dozens of images of blackface performers and advertisements for minstrel shows in Montreal.

"I thought, why don't I know this? I feel angry that I don't know this," said Thompson. "If I am a person of colour, and I don't know this, then the people who are actuallydoing [blackface]clearly don't know this."

Her research revealed two waves of blackface minstrel shows in Montreal, one of professional troupes, both American and local, performing in Montreal theatres in the late 1800s. A second wave saw community groups pick up the practice, mostly from the 1920sthrough to the1950s.

"In Canada, we don't like to talk about these icky things," said Thompson."It makes us uncomfortable. We have to get over that discomfort."

Montreal isfar from unique in itsblackfacehistory.

Thompson recently begana cross-Canada research project, uncoveringphotos and advertisements forminstrel shows from Toronto and southern Ontarioall the way toDrumheller, Alberta.

Oh, Canada!

Perhaps anindication of just how intertwinedblackfaceis withCanadian history: the composer of Canada's national anthem, CalixaLavalle,was himself a member of ablackfacetroupe.

Years beforeLavallecomposedO Canada,he toured North America, including Montreal and Quebec City,with American troupes, according to Brian C. Thompson, theauthor ofthe recentlypublished Anthems and Minstrel Shows:The Life and Times ofCalixaLavalle, 1842-1891. (He is no relation to Cheryl Thompson.)

While many troupes were founded by Americans or English-speaking Canadians, Thompsonsaid it was not uncommon forfrancophonesto jointouring groups.

"The company [New Orleans Minstrels] included a number offrancophoneperformers, although they were mostly musicians," he said.

According to Quebec's Bibliothque et Archives Nationales (BAnQ), the Thtre Royal, Montreal's oldest permanent theatre, built by wealthymerchant John Molson in 1825, staged wildly successfulminstrel shows, also known as "soiresthiopiennes."

And there are indications thatminstrel shows were popular with audiences of all linguistic backgrounds.

"In the19thcentury, middle-classfrancophoneswent to English-language theatre," said Thompson,"because there was very little happening in French."

'They were selling out theatres'

Even after minstrel showsfell out of fashion amongprofessional theatre troupes, theyexperienceda revival with Montreal community groups around the1920s.

Cheryl Thompson found photos ofblackfaceperformances put on by the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association and the YMCA.

The archives of Montreal's Jewish Public Library also has an extensive collection of photos and playbills fromblackfaceminstrel shows put on by theYoung Men's Hebrew Association (YMHA). The huge casts and elaborate costumes and setsshow just howseriousthese productions were.

"They were selling out theatres,"said ShannonHodge, the library's archivesdirector in 2016.

"They were filling upHis Majesty's Theatre, they were filling upMonument National. These were well-attended, and they were cultural evenings out for people."

During World War II, the YMHA minstrels took their show on the road, performing for soldiers stationed in Quebec. Theyeven translated one of their shows into French, to entertain francophone soldiers.

'Not allabout parody of black people'

While minstrel shows appear shockingly racist to a modern audience, Brian Thompson said this was not always theintent.

Like Renaissance jesters, who were given licence to poke fun at high-ranking figures, minstrels would perform inblackfaceso they could get away with more political material.

"Blackfacewas a device performers used todistancethemselves from what they were saying so that they could criticize those in positions of wealth and power," Brian Thompson said.

"Minstrelsy was not all about parody of black people," he said.

Some political cartoonists, such asHenriJulienof theMontreal Daily Star, took the same approach. Julien illustrated an 1899 series called Songs of the By-Town Coons,usingblackfaceimagery tocritiqueWilfridLaurier'sgovernment.

The YMHA productions also used to poke fun at key figures in the Jewish community.

But whatever the intent, some minstrel-show performers eventually understood that theircaricaturishdepictions of black characterswere offensive to actual black people.

An interview in the Jewish Public Library archives with formerYMHAminstrelsrevealed theystopped doingblackfacein the1940s, because, in their words, "the black community objected."

"As it should have been, the community adapted what was appropriate for entertainment, becauseblackfacewas not appropriate," saidHodge.

'You have to know the roots'

But blackface continued in later decades CBC/Radio-Canada's own archives includetelevisedblackface performances fromthe 1950s and 60s.

For Cheryl Thompson, that local history is relevant, because some of the recent debate about blackface in Quebecseems to take for granted that minstrel shows werean American-only phenomenon whichneverinfluencedculture north of the border.

"I'm a firm believer that you have to know the roots of something, before you address the fruits that are growing off the branches," she said.