Two people in the 1901 photo appear to me to have dark faces and pale hands but I wouldn't make to much of that. It is very difficult to interpret old black & white photos.

Of course you are correct Guest (why not join?) this is a political debate. Those of us who think it is wrong for 'white' people to black up for almost any reason point to Blackface Minstrelsy as the major influence on the current practice of Blacking up in English folk customs. Yes we know their is evidence going back hundreds of years of blacking up in some mumming and related folk customs but the addition of Stephen Foster songs, banjos, bones and curly wigs ever so slightly suggestions a more significant influence - and one which is well documented across the history of UK Music Hall and urban and rural fetes, fairs and carnivals.

We would all welcome a serious study of "urban and rural fetes, fairs and carnivals" wouldn't we?