The Adventures of Amos ’n’ Andy: A Social History of an American Phenomenon

Forty million Americans indulged in a national obsession in 1930: they eagerly tuned in Amos ’n’ Andy, the nightly radio comedy in which a pair of white actors portrayed the adventures of two Black men making a new life in the big city. Meanwhile, some African Americans demanded that Amos ’n’ Andy be banned, even as others gathered in barbershops and radio stores across Harlem to laugh at the antics of Amos, Andy, and the Kingfish.

Melvin Patrick Ely uncovers a fascinating story of America’s shifting color line, in which two professional creators of blackface minstrel shows produced a series so rich and complex that it attracted admirers ranging from overt racists to outspoken racial egalitarians. The controversy deepened when the program transitioned to television.

In a new preface to this edition of his acclaimed work, Ely examines how Black and white responses to The Adventures of Amos ’n’ Andy since 1991 reveal evolving tensions, hopes, and fears surrounding race in America at the turn of the twenty-first century.