The Whitman Sisters

This article afforded me with a fascinating first-hand glimpse into the life of African-American performers around the turn of the 20th Century. The description of the show's program reminded me of a modern day variety show but on steroids; it had an incredible variety of performances. I was surprised by the massive popularity of the the Whitman sister's vaudeville performance with both black and white audiences. The sisters appealed to white audiences because of their light skin color and their air of respectability. I was interested to learn that they belonged to a "high-class" of performers who enjoyed benefits for respecting white notions of respectability. The sisters' father, a reverend, disapproved of the secular nature of the entertainment that his daughters embraced; it was not befitting to the standards of the "upstanding African American families". I was unaware of this split in black culture at this time.
The Whitman sisters were not content just to entertain their audiences however. I was struck by the many ways in which they challenged traditional notions of race and gender. The sisters used their popularity to lead the way for the desegregation of theaters and increased recognition for black performers. The genius of the Whitman sisters was to combine traditional vaudeville with subtle social protest in such a way that it was beloved by black and white audiences alike.
Martin Breu
Dance 163