I recently had a conversation with Ampie Alblas. They are a blogger from Belgium who writes a blog called Collecting Clowns. Ampie was working on a story about a film made in 1916 called “Natural Born Gambler.” This film is unique because it is considered one of the first films directed by a black man, Bert Williams.

Williams moved to the United States from The Bahamas as a child. He was famous for performing in minstrel shows at the turn of the century. Early in his career, he performed with another black man, George Walker, as two “Real Coons”. They used this name because it was fashionable for white performers to put on blackface and perform as Black people, “coons”. Williams and his partner, Walker also performed in minstrel shows. They used black makeup to cover their faces. They called their show “Real Coons because they were black people performing as black people. After a lot of success, William’s partner, Walker, passed away. Williams continued to perform in minstrel shows and vaudeville, working with the Ziegfield Follies. In his day, Williams was one of the three most famous black men in the country, along with boxer Jack Johnson and educator Booker T Washington. 

There is a clip of Bert Williams in the 2016 short film, “Love Is the message and the message is death.” by Arthur Jafa. I first saw this film by Jafa at the High Museum here in Atlanta. The museum streamed the movie for several days this summer. The clip from Jafa’s film shows Williams fainting before several police officers put him in a police car. 

Offstage, Williams was a tall man known for his poise and distinction. On stage, he played a character known for his ineptness. Throughout his career, he faced institutional racism, which meant that the only roles he could play were the lazy coon. Within that role, he was known for giving his charaters depth and dignity. W.C. Fields said, “Bert Williams was the funniest man I ever saw and the saddest man I ever knew.... With all his philosophy, and he had a well-grounded philosophy, he would occasionally say, ‘Well, there is no way for me to know this or that thing, which you say is going on—I’m just relegated—I don’t belong.’ ”

Williams was a fascinating man. He had great success in his era. He made his movie, “Natural Born Gambler” over a hundred years ago. In the film, he plays a gambler in an illegal gambling house. Eventually, the house gets busted by the cops. Williams faints in front of the police car before they put him inside and take him away. 

We are now in the era of George Floyd and Breonna Tayler, who were killed by police officers. I found this Williams quote to be particularly relevant. For me, it resonates with the themes of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I have never been able to discover that there was anything disgraceful in being a colored man. But I have often found it inconvenient —in America.” 

Ampie wanted some of my thoughts about Williams, his career, and his use of blackface. You can read our conversation on their blog here. 

This post was updated to reflect that Ampie Alblas uses they/them pronouns.

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