Timmie rogers biography of mahatma

Timmie rogers biography of mahatma: She references the memoir of one

Timmie Rogers was a popular black comedian and entertainer from the s through the s. He was one of the first African American entertainers who refused to wear blackface or to dress in dirty tattered clothing while performing. Rogers also was one of the first entertainers to speak directly to the audience in his own voice. Previous black performers beginning in the Jim Crow era had always affected some variation of the Sambo and Coon type characters up to the midth Century routine of Amos and Andy.

Rogers was born in Detroit, Michigan in His grandfather was a slave and his father ran away from home at the age of 12, finding a job as dishwasher in a kitchen on an Ohio River steamboat. As a child, Rogers began dancing and performing on the street corners in Detroit for change and later took a job cleaning ashtrays at a ballroom where he was allowed to perform his acts before the main entertainment.

In , Rogers was one of the featured performers on the first all-black TV variety show that began as Uptown Jubilee. The show aired three times on CBS before it was canceled. Rogers was often called the Jackie Robinson of Comedy because he was a pioneer television performer. Negro comic works with wraps on, always behind the cultural ghetto.