minstrel

This song, also known as “The Old Folks at Home,” became the most-performed song of 19th-century minstrel shows, and was adopted as the state song of Florida, through which the Suwannee River flows, in 1935.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 1, 2026

The screams wouldn’t have reached the Hollywood Hills, where Bill Whitten wound down after a typical Sunday cooking Southern-style collard greens and cornbread in his eclectic home filled with African and Black American minstrel art.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2025

White minstrel performers like Joel Walker Sweeney were credited with popularizing the instrument that inspired a vital part of popular music in the country seen as "hillbilly" music.

From Salon ● Feb. 15, 2024

Redd’s father took him to see traveling minstrel shows when he was a boy, and he was particularly struck by the one-legged tap dancer Peg Leg Bates moving to the rhythm of a trap drummer.

From New York Times ● Jun. 2, 2023

And all the host laughed and wept, and in the midst of their merriment and tears the clear voice of the minstrel rose like silver and gold, and all men were hushed.

From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien

How did this music surpass its muses from the holds to the plantation to the medicine shows and minstrels and brothels and jukes, to the Grammys red carpet, lavish video shoots and MTV Cribs?

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2023

During the Middle Ages, minstrels were retained by royal courts to provide pleasant atmosphere.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 23, 2022

We are the last wandering minstrels, racing town to town, big clubs and small, piano player to piano player.

From New York Times ● Jul. 27, 2022

The composer and songwriter Stephen Foster, a white Pittsburgher, wrote the 1853 melody, which blackface minstrels made into a hit.

From Salon ● May 5, 2022

There, visiting pilgrims, knights at arms, merchants, and minstrels gathered, each awaiting the attention of the Prior.

From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli