Watermelon: African Americans and Watermelons

The stereotypical association between African Americans and watermelons is a post–Civil War phenomenon. Slaves grew and ate watermelons in the South, as did most other Americans. After the Civil War, Negro minstrels sang songs such as “The Watermelon Song” and “Oh, Dat Watermelon” in their shows. These songs were first published in the 1870s and were mainstream America’s first printed evidence of an association between African Americans and watermelons. When film came along in the 1890s African Americans’ association with watermelons moved into mainstream culture. During the early twentieth century and up to about 1940, the association between African Americans and watermelons was cemented through print caricatures (postcards, posters, and advertisements) and as a decorative theme for household goods, especially kitchen accessories. The most common caricature depicts a man with a wide, open-mouthed smile, the deep red interior of his mouth paralleling the color of the watermelon. Many African Americans deeply resented the caricature. When the 1893 Columbian Exhibition tried to attract African Americans to the world’s fair, a special Colored People’s Day was planned, which included African American entertainers and the distribution of free watermelons. The African American community in Chicago boycotted the day as did many of the scheduled performers. In 1939 the actress Butterfly McQueen, playing Scarlett O’Hara’s slave, refused to eat watermelon in the film Gone with the Wind.