Black Americana Valentine Cards

Valentines, like other vintage ephemera, often reflected attitudes of the day that would not be popular or even acceptable now. Images of blacks were sometimes drawn in a way that mimicked black face or exaggerated features to make the figures appear not as human, as vastly different than whites. The popularity of this type of imagery peaked somewhere around the mid to late 1930s and now has faded out of the American mainstream to a large degree although stereo-typed images can still be found out there today.

Baby, Yo' sho' does play havoc wit mah heart!

2 5/8" x 3 3/4"
Made in Germany
circa 1920s/1930s

To You Ah wants to AM where YOU IS Instead of Where I BE, 'Cause When I Are Where YOU AM NOT IT AIN'T NO PLACE FOR ME!

6" x 8 3/8"
circa 1920s/1930s
made in USA

While some of these valentines may make viewers wince, its important to remember that it was not all that long ago when images like these were mundane items.  Cartoons and advertising employed similar stereotypes as did movies, radio and television.

This sure is fine.  I'll share it with you if you'll be my Valentine!

Features figure eating watermelon
single fold

This normalization of racist portrayals in the US was not limited to only small segments of the population, nor to just the American south, but was pervasive. The saturation of anti-black stereotypes in society at large helped keep the social order of the day in place and make overt, institutionalized racism like Jim Crow laws more possible.

I'll be MELON-cholly If you won't Be my Valentine.

pair sit on top of a watermelon

Watermelon appears again and again in images of blacks from the 1920s to the 1940s (and beyond, but a bit less frequently).   The fruit was used to show blacks as happily content with life as it is - no need to worry about racial equality.  A comforting image for whites to reassure themselves that the racist social structure of the day was just the natural order of things.

Cause you're my Valentine I'se gonna be DISH-gusted till yo' shines up to me.

figure washes dishes
circa 1940s
made in USA

I Love You - A Big Opening for a Valentine.

4 3/4" x 3 5/8"
circa 1930s/1940s
features small black child and large hippo
Flat
made in USA

I'm Yo' Valentine

6 3/4" x 4 1/2"
circa 1890s - 1910s
Standing Flat with 3-D Feature
moving eyes are suspended on string
Signed Bonte
printed by Ernest Nister
E P Dutton and Co.
Printed in Bavaria
marked: No. 1889

Marie Louise Quarles Bonte and George Willard Bonte are probably best known for their book ABC in Dixie - A Plantation Alphabet, published in 1904 also by Ernest Nister. There is a postcard series to collect based on the book. George also did a 1905 calendar (also published by Nister and may be credited as simply by "Willard Bonte") called The Coon Calendar for 1905. In an ad for Dutton's calendars in The Churchman, Volume 90 of Dec 3rd, 1904 The Coon Calendar is described as: "Thirteen pages of humorous negro types by Willard Bonte. One of the best and most humerous ideas of the year." It is unusual for one of Nister's cards to retain the artists mark as this card does. Nister was a lithographer based in Nuremburg, Germany with offices also in London, England. E. P. Dutton was the exclusive agent for Nister in the USA.

Valentine Greetings

6 1/4" x 5 3/4" (with mouth opened)
circa 1920s
mechanical mouth
with rotating wheel
made in Germany

Part of a series - Click here to see more cards of this series

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See more anti-black stereotypes on the Cannibal Themes page.

Click here to see if we have any Black Americana valentines in stock in our museum store.