David Pilgrim 
Watermelons, Nooses, and Straight Razors 
Stories from the Jim Crow Museum

All groups tell stories, but some groups have the power to impose their stories on others, to label others, stigmatise others, paint others as undesirables – and to have these stories presented as scientific fact, God’s will, or wholesome entertainment. Watermelons, Nooses, and Straight Razors examines the origins and significance of several longstanding anti-black stories and the caricatures and stereotypes that undergird them. Here readers will find representations of the lazy, childlike Sambo, the watermelon-obsessed pickaninny, the buffoonish minstrel, the subhuman savage, the loyal and contented mammy and Tom, and the menacing, razor-toting coon and brute.