Bodies Politic Talk: A Dark Cast: Disability, Blackface, and Franklin D. Roosevelt

Drawing from her national best-selling book Darkology: Blackface and the American Way of Entertainment, Rhae Lynn Barnes will explore the complex intersections of disability, presidential power, and racial masquerade. She will examine how minstrelsy and the dark cast of blackface performance functioned both as cultural entertainment and a political prosthetic during the Roosevelt era, masking the physical vulnerability of white children with polio while reinforcing racial hierarchies. Audience Q&A and a reception will follow.

Dr. Rhae Lynn Barnes is Assistant Professor of American Cultural History at Princeton University. A fourth-generation Southern Californian, she earned her B.A. from UC Berkeley and her Ph.D. from Harvard University. Dr. Barnes is also the founder of the digital education platform U.S. History Scene, providing historical multimedia curriculum resources to public schools.

Cosponsored by the IHC’s Bodies Politic series and the Hester and Cedric Crowell Endowment