The "Dare I Write This Story?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Snow had already covered our back deck making it impossible for the birds and squirrels to find needed feed.  Inside I was getting antsy for something to do other than go out and shovel the mess, so I opened the top of our antique desk we have in our dining room and began to explore the many items we have placed in it over our married lifetime together.  One item popped up that I had remembered from my childhood.  

My old children's book with my favorite fairy tales.

The children's book titled "A PATCH-WORK QUILT of FAVORITE TALES", with its tattered edges, drew my attention.  The book held a copyright of MCMXXXIII (1933) by M. A. Donohue & Co. and was printed in the United States of America.  The initial paragraph began with "A patchwork quilt of favorite tales is dedicated to every boy and girl.  As I read the opening paragraph I was shocked.  It began with: This little book, like the story-tellers of old, brings you tales of the adventures of children and of our four-footed friends, in the garden barnyard and forest.  It tells the story of lovable Peter Rabbit and his thrilling experiences in the garden with Mr. McGregor; of Little Black Sambo and his incident with the tigers who nearly took his new clothes; Whoa!  Wait, what did I just read?  My mom and dad, as well as my grandmother, read this to me and my brother many times based on the condition of the cover of the book.  

Explanation of the book.  Click to enlarge.

I opened the book to page 17 and there was a drawing of a small black child holding an umbrella with Little Black Sambo spelled out on the bottom right of the page.  The entire eight page illustrated story featured Little Black Sambo in his pretty clothes with a beautiful green umbrella as he visited the forest where four tigers took his clothes and umbrella from him.  They were jealous of each other and grabbed each others tails and chased each other around a tree.  They turned into a pool of butter which Sambo took home so his mother could make pancakes for his family.  His mother, father and he all had yellow pancakes, the color of the tigers.  Little Black Sambo ate a hundred and sixty-nine, because he was so hungry.  I do remember listening to this fairy tale many times long ago, along with all the other stories in the book.  Did my parents know that the book was extremely racist?  I'm not sure and can never ask them now.  

The beginning of the book.

I do know that my dad had several African American friends and took me to play baseball at the other end of town where I was one of four or five white children on the team.  He would go through the black neighborhood before each game picking up my team members in our big station wagon.  My coach, one of dad's friends, was black.  Mom and dad never talked about the difference of color and therefore I though it to be normal.  When I began to coach, I went back to the same neighborhood to recruit players for the team.  To this day I too have African American friends who I see all the time.  But I, like you, have heard, and perhaps experienced, the many problems in our society today related to race.  But, opening up my old book today really opened my eyes, for you see after I "Googled" the fairy tale to find how much my book might be worth and read all the comments about it, I was amazed.  

The beginning of the eight pages of Little Black Sambo.

The children's book was written and illustrated by Scottish author Helen Bannerman in 1899.  The book was an immediate success in England and was published in the United States the following year.  It's success led to many imitations of it which used vulgar pictures and words which were symbolic of black-white relations.  The book's popularity coincided with the crystallization of Jim Crow laws.  Blacks were denied basic human rights, discriminated against in the labor force, barred from many public schools and libraries, harassed at voting booths and subjected to physical violence.  Then along comes this fairy tale called Little Black Sambo.  Did Helen Bannerman really mean this book to be racist?  I guess we will never know.  I'm sure my parents didn't think that when they bought me the book of fairy tales.  The book itself didn't cause riots, but it did enter America during a period of strained and harsh race relations.  Therefore, I guess it was another insult in the daily lives of African Americans.  I continued to read more about the fairy tale and found the anti-Little Black Sambo movement started in the 1930s and continued until the 1970s.  Black educators and civil rights leaders tried to get the book banned from public libraries and elementary schools.  In the 1940s and 50s the book was dropped from many lists of "Recommended Books."  By the 1960s the book was seen as a remnant of a racist past.  Then in the mid-1990s the book came back once again into the spotlight with both whites and black rereading the original book.  Was it entertaining?   Both agreed it was, but there was still little agreement as to whether it was racist.  I certainly don't want to cause another debate with my children's book, so it will once again go back in the desk where I found it.  I will not discard it since it is, and will forever be, a piece of American history, be it good or bad.  It was never read to my children or my grandchildren and will remain that way.  Last thing I want is to cause pain and suffering for anyone.  After I am gone, someone will once again find the book and decide for themselves what to do with it.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.