I had a much-loved copy of Little Black Sambo in the early fifties. It was definitely about an Indian boy, because there were tigers in the story, who eventually whirled round in a circle faster and faster until they turned into 'ghee'. (which is clarified butter in Indian cuisine). Nobody ever felt it was 'racist'. It was only much later in the sixties that 'Sambo' became a pejorative name for black African men.