Amos 'n' Andy
Perhaps nothing characterizes the enormous changes American society has undergone during Roscoe Bartlett's lifetime as much as Amos 'n' Andy. Amos 'n' Andy began as a daily radio comedy show in Chicago on March 19, 1928. The show featured three African-America characters portrayed by two white actors. Charles Correll played Andy, while Freeman Gosdon played both Amos and the Kingfish (and coined the phrase "Holy mackerel!"). The humor drew almost immediate criticism from some African-Americans as being predicated upon racial stereotypes. Still, the show persisted, and in 1930 became a movie, Check and Double Check. Correll and Gosdon appeared in blackface.
The controversy grew when the Pittsburgh Courier gathered 650,000 signatures on a petition to take Amos 'n' Andy off the air. They were ignored. By 1951, Amos 'n' Andy became a television show. This time, the NAACP took up the cause against Amos 'n' Andy, and the show was canceled after two years. CBS syndicated reruns until 1966 when it finally agreed to take the program off the air.
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