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Chapter Thirteen: PREJUDICE: ~JUartA ~vD T~ ~ cROw ~ws Since the abolition of alaver,~ ractam and bigotry hose generally had to manifest themselves in less blatant forms in Meerica. The cannabis prohibition iawa illustrate ogain this institutional intolerance of racial minorities and show how prejudice is concealed behind rhetoric and laws which seem to have an entirely diif ferent purpose. $MOHIIITG IN AFRICA BLACKFACE The first known* smoking of female cannabis tops The Public Safety Commissioner of New Orleans in the Western hemisphere was in the 1870a in the wrote that, `marijuana was the most frightening and West Indies (Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbados, etc.); and vicious drug ever to hit New Orleana,° and in 1910 arrived with the immigration of thousands of Indian warned that regular users might number as high as Hindus imported for cheaper labor. By 1886, 200 in 3toreyville alone. Mexcans and Black sailors, who traded in those is- ~ the D.A and Public Safety Cornrn;aa;oners and lands, picked up and spread its use throughout all New Orleans newspapers from 1910 through the the Went Indies and Meuco. 1930x, marijuana's insidious evil influence apparent- •There are other theortea about the i>r.t known •emoking• of ly manifested itself in making the °darkies" think hemp flower tope, e.g, by American and Brasiliaa slaves, Shawnee they were a8 g00d 88 `White men.° Indians, etc.. some fascinating-but mne veriSable. Cannabis smoking was generally used in the West ~ fact, marijuana was being blamed for the first re- Indies to ease the back-breaking work in the cane of black entertainers to wear blackface* and fields, beat the heat, sad to relax in the evenings for hysterical laughter by Negroes under marijuana's ~ without the threat of an alcohol hangover in the influence when told to cross a street or go to the back morning. of the trolley, etc. • Thet9e right, your eyes have sot deceived yrou. Because of a ctvi- ouequirk is Lhe •Jim Crete (segregation; apartheid type) laws, black "Negroes, Mexicans and entertainera,'°-aced Americana were banned 5om eqy stage in the Deep south (and moat theirjazz and awing music-were declared an other places in the North and West elso). Negroes had to wear Oeetg/+OWth Of ma7'~eea7e4 a8e. (threvgh the 1920x) blackface--(like Al Jdeon wore when he sang 'awaoee•) a dye which white entertaiaere wore to resemble or mimic black people. Actually, by •Jim Crew' law, blacks were not allowed on Given its late 19th century area of usage-the er hnosugh b~arlcb d~aobn p~ on bhiackfaoe Land prn~n~a to be a w>vice Caribbean West Indies and Meuco-it is not aurpris- person playing the part of a black person... ing the first marijuana use recorded in the U.S. was that of Meucana in Brownsville, 'llexas is 1903, and ••,~jD ALL THAT JAZZ then in 1909 in the port of New Orleans, in the Black dominated °Storeyville° section frequented by sailors. In New Orleans, whites were also concerned that New Orleans' Storeyville was filled with cabarets, black mug'°ana, rumored to smoke marijuana, were brothels, music, and all the other usual accouter- spreading (selling) a very powerful (popular) new ments of aced light° districts the world over. Sailors `hoodoo" music that forced even decent white women from the Islands took their shore leave and their ~ ~P their feet and was ultimately aimed at throw- mar{juana there. ing off the yoke of the whites. Today we call that new music... Jazz! ~5-