PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2016-01-27 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Were Lawn Jockeys Used as Underground Railroad Symbols? (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • The black lawn jockey is typically thought of as a piece of racist memorabilia, but a viral Facebook post in January 2016 sought to reverse that image by claiming that these miniature statues were actually used to aid slaves traveling on the Underground Railroad and were therefore the least racist items that could be displayed in front of a home: This notion isn't a new theory. Charles Blockson, the curator of the Afro-American Collection at Temple University in Philadelphia, believes that the lawn jockey is frequently misunderstood and is actually a positive and supportive figure for African-Americans. Blockson was interviewed for a Feb. 8, 1998, article in the Chicago Tribune: The origin of the lawn jockey figure is often attached to the legend of Jocko Graves. According to the River Road African American Museum, Jocko Graves was the 12-year-old son of a free Black man who wanted to help Revolutionary War commander-in-chief George Washington cross the Delaware River to attack Hessian forces in Trenton, New Jersey, in December 1776. Graves was too young to join Washington on the crossing, so he reportedly volunteered to watch the general's horses instead; unfortunately, young Graves froze to death in the effort. Moved by the boy's sacrifice, Washington supposedly commissioned a statue in Graves' honor which became the prototype for the modern lawn jockey: This theory, however, is likely not rooted in fact. In 1987, Ellen McCallister Clark, a Mount Vernon librarian, wrote that historians there had found no record or account of a person named Jocko Graves: The Jim Crow Museum also pointed out some problematic issues with the idea that lawn jockeys were used to help slaves make their way to freedom through the Underground Railroad: David Pilgrim, curator of the Jim Crow Museum, acknowledged that no consensus explanation existed for the lawn jockey, and that the common legends about their origins are not currently supported by much evidence. Nonetheless, he doubted that those displaying black lawn jockeys were aware of the legends concerning Jocko Graves or the Underground Railroad: (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url