I never saw a live minstrel show. I grew up in California's San Joaquin Valley in the 1940's and '50's. I'm certain they existed, but my only memory is of Jolson and other early movie or TV shows.

However, Since my father's family was from Beaumont, Texas, on the gulf coast, I saw blatant racism of the unreconstructed variety early on. I remember the separate drinking fountains and the signs reminding blacks to head home for "Pear Orchard" (their part of town, across the tracks) by sundown. Many older white people professed a visceral fear of miscegenation and dreaded the day when black people actually gained control of their lives. I recall service stations with three rest room doors - men, women and colored. That was MY minstrel show. It was all based on white fear, not on anger or simple ridicule born of ignorance, as many still believe.

By the way, does anyone remember a 1964 film starring James Whitmore called "Black Like Me?" Another interesting movie, starring the late Godfrey Cambridge, was "Watermelon Man," a Melvin Van Peebles-directed story about a white bigot who finds out he is really black.