The Livermore Brothers Court Minstrels were an English minstrel band who performed in blackface during the Victorian era. The program includes “American Song & Dance,” “The Darkies Centenary,” and “The Kentucky Force,” among other acts. The show came to The Exchange on 26 March 1890. Minstrel shows began in the 1840s with other acts such as the Virginia Minstrels and Christy’s Minstrels. This led directly to many British imitators such as Hamilton’s Black and White Minstrels and Uncle Mac’s Minstrels. The ‘old time’ minstrel theme remained a consistently popular form of live entertainment into the 1950s, transferring to television with the Black and White Minstrel Show.In 1967, the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination presented a petition to the BBC calling for the show to be cancelled due to its highly racist and offensive material. The broadcasts continued until 1978 when it was finally taken off air by the BBC and is now widely acknowledged as being a disgrace.
Read more about it on the BBC website.
