Shine is a very old word with more meanings than be covered here. In the senses pertinent to the question posed by Michael R.

The song "That's Why They Call Me Shine" by Cecil Mack (1910) is the basis for the word 'Shine' in most later compositions; this song was extremely popular throughout the period 1910-1930, with black musicians. Seamus Kennedy quotes a part of it (more or less correctly), but misses the intent of the singer, who turns the definition to the Old English (in print from AD 900): to be conspicuous or brilliant in ability, appearance; found applied to people with a sunny disposition (18 c.), flamboyance (c. 1800), etc.
Also in the period c. 1910 (in print but probably older), 'shine' was applied to Blacks by the criminal class (OED), but also by lower class urbanites- here, one of the meanings cited by Seamus Kennedy comes into the picture- a shoeshine, and the ubiquitous 'shoeshine boys' who plied their trade on city streets, and eventually set up portable stands with seats (discussed in print in 1870's, the shoeshine stand appearing soon after the Civil War if not before in major cities. Their call, 'Shine,' led to that word being applied to them and to all Blacks (including some dark-skinned but not African-American).
Cecil Mack, an educated African-American who at one time hoped to be a doctor but dropped out because he had no money, played these two meanings very cleverly in his little song; I am sure that most Whites failed to catch the interplay.


The information about toasts, and 'shine' discussed by Azizi, is new to me; something not found in the references I know. Perhaps this material should be the subject of a separate thread, or the title of this thread could be revised.
Azizi, could you put more 'where found' reference material to your discussion of African-American 'toasts?' Are there any books (Jackson, etc.)? Also, when did Bad guy 'Shine,' terms like signifying monkey, etc. appear?.

Seamus Kennedy mentions the characters in advertising- these, I think, were worse than the minstrel material of an earlier (mostly pre-emancipation) period. These advs., common through the 1930's, not only firmly placed the African-American in the servant class, but the text often made remarks about their supposed inferior intelligence. This material, in Colliers, Sat. Eve. Post and other widely read magazines and papers, affected white thought long after the minstrels were mostly forgotten and references (such as the Encyclopaedia Britannica following the 1911 edition) updated their essays on the Negro to remove discussion of their lower intelligence, pugnacity, etc.