Roaring Twenties: Jackie Mabley's Racial Injustice

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For African-American comedian, Jackie “Moms” Mabley, race played a huge role in her life as a child and continued to affect her life and career as an adult. As was custom, from the beginning of her life Moms Mabley was treated differently because of her racial identity. By fourteen Jackie Mabley had been raped for the second time in her life by the white sheriff in the town she lived in. Because of her race, not only were both of her rapes overlooked, she was also not able to bring her case to the police because of the occupation and race of her rapist. After giving birth to the child that came from that rape, Mabley ran away from home to join a minstrel show. In the 1920s, nicknamed the “Roaring Twenties,” Jackie Mabley traveled to New York City. …show more content…

Mabley began preforming in many famous theaters. However the irony behind this was that many of the places where African-American performers were being showcased at, black people could not even attend. According to sources, comedian Jackie “Moms” Mabley never performed in a theater where her peers and familiars were not also allowed to attend. Many perceive that this related to her strong political views, although many icons of the Harlem Renaissance spoke out about segregation outside their, Mabley took a different route. As she became well known Jackie Mabley began to use her influence as a comic to push causes and speak out about what she believed in, mostly issues regarding race. This made her a controversial figure, a feat she had already accomplished with her vulgar jokes and risk taking humor. Mabley was able to deal with the racial divide in her comedy while keeping the theme of pleasing her audiences; Mabley’s routines often poked fun at issues regarding segregation and her life as a black American during the Harlem Renaissance and the difficulties it

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