In the beginning, whites performed in blackface, and, only later, did Negroes themselves perform commercially.
"The Black Experience in America The Immigrant Heritage of America"
Norman Coombs
One thinks here not of the mere spasmodic effects of the comic artist or the blackface expert of the vaudeville show, but of the really great humour which, once or twice in a generation at best, illuminates and elevates our literature.
"Further Foolishness"
Stephen Leacock