The Adventures of Amos 'n' Andy

A Social History of an American Phenomenon

by Melvin Patrick Ely

Melvin Ely unveils a fascinating tale of America's shifting color line. 

In the 1920s and 1930s, two professional directors of blackface minstrel shows create a radio drama-comedy about two southern Black men building new lives in a big city. The white performers manage to produce a series so rich and complex that it wins admirers ranging from ultra-racists to outspoken racial egalitarians and ignites a passionate debate among African Americans themselves. Eventually, the pair stir further controversy when they bring their show to television.

From the beginning, whites took comfort from Amos 'n' Andy's success in attracting Black listeners; white commentators were quick to insist that America's favorite radio show—and, by implication, the nation as a whole—dealt kindly with Black folk. Ely's Adventures of Amos 'n' Andy traces the history of a society less and less comfortable defending the most obvious flaw in our democratic order—the color line—yet still unwilling to erase it once and for all. →