The Jolly Darkie Target Game is an American board and dexterity game manufactured by McLoughlin Brothers, later absorbed into the Milton Bradley Company, first released in 1890 and produced until roughly 1915. Play consisted of throwing a wooden ball at a cardboard target shaped and painted to resemble a human mouth that could be opened and closed, with players scoring by hitting the bullseye inside it. The game is preserved and studied today not for its mechanics but as a documented example of the racist caricature that pervaded American popular culture and children's entertainment in the late nineteenth century, depicting African Americans through dehumanizing minstrel-show imagery aimed at white consumers during a period of escalating hostility toward Black Americans. It belongs to a wider body of similarly themed objects and games manufactured and sold during this era, and surviving examples are today collected and catalogued within the broader field of Black memorabilia, which documents both the offensive material culture of American racism and its historical context.
Facts
Sources
1. Jolly Darkie Target Game (Wikipedia)
Infobox: date or years of the game; lead sentence where the year appearsQuote, Infobox: date or years of the game; lead sentence where the year appears
The Jolly Darkie Target Game was a game developed and manufactured by the McLoughlin Brothers (now part of Milton Bradley Company) which was released in 1890.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.