Here's Lenny Henry's own take on his time with the Black and white Minstrels - he was a teenaged winner of a TV talent show and desperate for professional work:
I also signed up to do the club tour of the Black and White Minstrels Show. The reasons are very complicated...
Now at the time, the Black and Whites were a huge phenomenon on British television. Multiple award winners, the stage show had run at the Victoria Palace for 20 some odd years, this was a big success story. Yes a few people, like the Race Relations Board, complained about the racist problem at its heart, but generally people enjoyed the costumes and the old songs and generally ignored the blacked up faces...
I think by 79 – I'd had enough. The jokes were boring – 'And now the only one of 'em who doesn't need make up', 'when Lenny cries he gets little white lines crawling down his face', etc. I partook in these jokes because I didn't really know any better; It hurts thinking about it now. I think the term 'ill advised' could be bandied about here.
The full story is on his own website.