America's biggest shopping mall grabbed headlines by hiring its first African-American Father Christmas. But black Santas have been around for a lot longer than you might think - and even played a role in the civil rights struggles of the 1960s.
Kenny Green, who has been playing Santa Claus for the past five years, takes his job seriously. He notes that while the mall where he works, in a suburb of Washington DC, has hosted a black Santa for as long as anyone can remember, they are still "few and far between" in the rest of America.
African-American families come from as far afield as Delaware, 80 miles away, to visit his grotto, at the Shops at Iverson mall. He says, it was "huge" that the Mall of America decided to hire a black Santa for the first time this year.
The traditional image of Santa, as a jolly, rotund, and white, character is deeply embedded in American culture. Larry Jefferson was the Mall of America's first black Santa Claus. The Minnesota shopping centre hired Larry Jefferson at a Santa convention in Missouri, where among more than 1,000 attendees he was the only African-American.
He only appeared at the Mall of America for one weekend but it was still enough to spark racist abuse on message boards. In the overheated post-election atmosphere, Santa Claus is seen by some as another cherished cultural institution under attack by the forces of political correctness.
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Evolution of Santa Claus | History
Prof Victoria Wolcott, a history professor at the University of Buffalo, who writes about segregation, says: "Going to a department store, sitting on Santa's lap, all of that, is very central to a certain kind of post-war, white middle-class identity. To challenge that, by having a Santa Claus of colour, disturbs people."
Early Depictions and the Evolution of Santa
It appears to have been disturbing people for more than a century, judging from local newspaper reports about "negro Santas", which tend to veer from an amused "whatever next" tone to examples of flat-out racism.
The Santa Claus legend can be traced back to a fourth century monk named St Nicholas who lived in what is today Turkey. The modern image of Santa Claus was created in the late 1800s by American artist Thomas Nast in a series of cartoons for Harper's Weekly magazine It became a staple of Christmas cards and advertising images in the early 20th Century, most notably a 1930s Coca-Cola commercial, which some believe popularised his distinctive red-and-white garb.
A 1901 news report, from Bloomfield, New Jersey, read: "A negro Santa Claus went down a chimney head first and landed on the fire. The surprised occupants of the room flogged him." Other reports from the time tell of Christmas parties enlivened by "black-face" Santas, singing "negro melodies".
In 1915, a gushing account of President Wilson's honeymoon at a Virginia resort included a description of a festive party "presided over by a dusky Santa Claus", with a large "gaily decorated" Christmas tree. "Before [the tree] disported 15 negroes, whose antics and musical efforts kept the President and everybody else almost convulsed with laughter."
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Four years later, the Pittsburgh Daily Post carried a report about the "the first negro Santa ever put on the streets of any city". He had been hired by the Volunteers of America in response to "appeals from poor coloured children", the newspaper added.
But the real breakthrough for black Santas came in 1936, when tap-dancing legend Bill "Bojangles" Robinson became Harlem's "first negro Santa Claus" at an annual Christmas Eve party for underprivileged children. In previous years, the children had been visited by a "Nordic Santa" from downtown New York, reported a local newspaper.
In 1943, one of Harlem's biggest department stores, Blumstein's, hired its first black Santa Claus. It was followed, in 1946, by a store in Chicago.
As white people moved out to the suburbs, and began shopping at the giant new malls that were being built there, it made economic sense for downtown department store owners to tailor the Christmas shopping experience to their now mainly black customers.
Santa and the Civil Rights Movement
By the 1960s, Santa had been recruited by the civil rights movement, which was starting to use economic boycotts as a weapon in the fight for racial equality.
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In 1969, Santa Claus was described as "one of the established symbols of racism" by a civil rights leader, in a dispute with Shillittoes, a Cincinnati department store, that refused to hire a black Father Christmas.
The store owner's Fred Lazarus III said: "This has nothing to do with equality of employment. It just doesn't fit the symbol as kids have known it."
But the Rev Otis Moss Jr, a regional director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, hit back, saying: "If a department store cannot conceive of a black man as Santa Claus for 30 days, it most assuredly cannot conceive of his being president or vice president for 365 days."
The store caved in and hired a black Santa the following year, something that began happening with increasing frequency across the country in the early 1970s, including at Macy's flagship New York store.
One department store in Brooklyn even set up rival black-and-white Santas, separated by a low partition, to enable people to make their choice.
Shameka Pettus, whose two youngest children, Christopher and Jonathan, can hardly contain their excitement at meeting their Yuletide idol, says: "When I was a kid we only had white Santas so this is pretty cool to see a black Santa in the mall for the kids."
Green says even some African-American people have difficulty with a black Santa, recalling some "shocking" comments made by one woman last year, who told one of his elves Santa should be white.
But he adds: "When it comes to the spirit of Christmas and what the spirit of Santa is all about, it's not about race, it's not about white or black, it's about the love you have and the spirit you represent." He says the Mall of America's black Santa will "open a lot of eyes" and could lead to an "influx" of Santas from all different ethnic backgrounds, not just African American. "I would definitely take my children to go see an Hispanic Santa. I would definitely take my children to go see an Asian Santa," he says. "Because that's letting them know that Santa is a representation of all of us. That's who we should be. We all should be Santas.
I was thrilled when I spotted him. A ceramic potbellied Santa frozen in mid stride on a glazed platform-one clay hand holding a bag stuffed with gifts and the other ringing a bell. The diminutive glossy painted Santa stood out from all the other holiday decorations because he was black. This was my first black Santa, and I couldn’t take my eyes off him. He sat among the pine cones and garland decorating a side table in the home of my parents’ friends, The Robinsons. “Where did you get him? “I asked Mrs. Robinson. She told me she made him and explained that she was inspired to make him because she, too, had never seen a Black Santa.
At the end of our family’s visit that day, she wrapped up the Santa and gave him to me with a warm, “Merry Christmas!” Until then, I had always pictured the Santa described in "Twas the Night Before Christmas,” the one with “cheeks like roses, and a nose like a cherry.” Not surprising. After all, the department store Santas, the parade float Santas, and the movie Santas all fit that description. I enjoyed that Santa, even though he didn’t fit in my real brown-skinned girl life.
That first black Santa remains a treasured possession, but he is no longer the only one I have. From the moment I got him, I was a woman possessed, looking for the scarce black Santas everywhere. I scored my best finds outside of the holiday season when the weather is decidedly un-Christmas-y. I scooped them up in Christmas shops all around the country, and got lucky in flea and craft markets. I now have about 40 or so black Santas (honestly I’ve lost count). They are a carefully curated collection that includes gifts from family members and pals who know of my obsession. Tall Santa always graces my living room during the season, but now the first black Santa is in my office nestled on a red runner where he is flanked by nine other ceramic mocha and mahogany Santas. That number doesn’t include the huge black Santa face hanging on my door.
My coworkers now expect to see my black Santas. My colleague Henry Santoro greeted their return this year with his signature,” Blanta’s back!” Happily, these days it’s a bit easier to find black Santas for sale, and on public display. And this year Santa Larry made a big splash at the Mall of America in Minneapolis when his four-day, appointment-only stint nearly sold out. Army veteran Larry Jefferson-Gamble, who is African-American, drew a racially mixed crowd-African-Americans, and a lot of white and Latino kids, too. Santa Larry told the Huffington Post, “Kids love Santa no matter what color you are.”
Not everybody was happy to see him. There were racist tweets complaining about Larry’s mall appearance. I saw that as an echo of Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly’s 2013 declaration, “For all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white.” Sorry Megyn, you’re just wrong.
I love my black Santas and I don’t care if certain people can’t see Santa as I do. So, until Christmas Day, I’ll be wearing my black Santa pin, and enjoying my black Santa display, lifted by the spirit of the season.
Here are some of Callie's favorite black Santas. His beard and reputation are world famous. Miracles ascribed to him are legendary. Youngsters ponder his whereabouts and travel agenda, especially in December, knowing he’s not afraid to fly and he’s never run out of money.
Born to wealthy parents in Patara, Turkey, when the population of Anatolia was mostly pagan, it’s said he took a special interest in three sisters. Too poor to have dowries, they were being forced into prostitution when, suddenly, three bags of gold were thrown down their chimneys, enough bait to attract husbands. The trio did not leave thank you notes behind, for the record, but anyone with a bulging sack of benevolence is bound to be popular.
Faith and hope, St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, are outweighed: "The greatest of these is charity." Love for others is what always drove him, this Turk named Nicholas, which means "people's victory." Devoted to good works, Saint Nicholas [270-310] was once Bishop of Myra ("Myrrh"), a town now called Demre. Anatolia, the territory of modern Turkey, has been the heartland of human civilization since 7,000 BC.
Patara, to the west of Demre, had been visited by St. Paul and St. Luke in 55 AD on their way from Miletus to Jerusalem; perhaps from this early date, a Christian community was established at this major Roman Lycian port. Demre, a vital port on a dangerous part of the Turkish coastline, became part of the pilgrimage route from Venice and Constantinople to the Holy Land [Palestine]. This helped spread the cult of the saint, especially for seafarers who once worshiped the pagan god Poseidon.
In 392, the Edict of Theodosius ruled that Christianity would be the state religion of the Empire. Large scale destruction of classical statues and temples began, and locals constructed houses of worship like the much restored church of St. Nicholas at Myra (Demre), whose foundations date back to the late 4th-5th centuries. Rocked by a religious seesaw, this church was enlarged by the Emperor Justinian in the 6th century, then destroyed in an Arab-Muslim raid in 1034, but rebuilt by Constantine IX in 1043.
During the Crusades, Catholic merchants sailed to Muslim countries to acquire relics for their own parishes. In May of 1087, several well-financed Italian groups were bidding on the bones of St.Nicholas when a boatload of Barese businessmen stole the remains and rowed them back to Apulia. The pugliese, about to lose to the wealthier Venetians, knew they would have a major tourist attraction if they grabbed San Nicola. The Cathedral built to honor the former bishop in Bari, Italy [in 1087] depicts the Turkish-born saint as a very dark-skinned, Middle Eastern male.
One of the most famous figures of Christendom, Nicholas is the patron saint of several countries including Russia, Greece, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Sicily, Loraine, etc. When the feast of Saint Nicholas (December 6th) was prohibited after the Protestant reformation of the 16th century, this miracle-worker retained his popularity.
In 1664, when the Netherlanders relocated to New York [New Amsterdam], they carried their customs with them. Dutch youngsters awaited a visit from Sinter Klaas (Saint Nicholas) and presents he’d leave in their wooden shoes on the eve of December 5. As the appealing Dutch custom of celebrating the feast of Saint Nicholas by giving gifts to children spread throughout this nation, "Sinter Klaas" became "Santa Claus" in the United States.
This philanthropist, depicted as a white-bearded old man with a long caped coat [or sometimes in red Episcopal robes], remained a moralistic figure: rewarding good children or punishing unruly ones. Washington Irving's book -- A History of New York, From the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker -- depicted Saint Nicholas as a European, Caucasian-featured figure in a broad-brimmed hat who smoked a long pipe, associating his character with the then-familiar Dutch patron saint of New Amster-am.
An illustrated poem by John Pintart that portrayed a slim Saint Nicholas further distanced him from his Middle Eastern origins; no longer pictured on a donkey, he guided a sleigh drawn by one reindeer until 1821. Drawing on sources and his imagination, another New Yorker, Reverend Clement Clark Moore created the Santa that Americans know. In 1833, "A Visit From Saint Nicholas" introduced Santa Claus for the first time as a kind, plump, jolly Caucasian elf greeting readers with his twinkling eyes, rosy cheeks, and dimples. Moore's Saint Nicholas smoked a pipe, navigated an airborne sleigh pulled by eight tiny reindeer, and made his entrance via the chimney.
An enthusiastic house guest sent Moore's poem to a local newspaper editor. Overnight, verses about a jolly old elf who piloted a reindeer-drawn sleigh began to be recited by families. After awhile, the Church urged Christians to merge this "children's festival" with the Nativity. An Americanized Saint Nicholas, consequently, began making his housecalls during the night of December 24.
The Muurish Saint Nicholas
Santa Claus is a shortened form of San/Saint Nicholas. He is supposed to be this easy-go happy fat Nordic fellow (Pale skin man) from the North pole yelling ho..ho..ho.. and as he merrily brings the cheer of the Christmas season to all and sundry.
Nicholas, was probably born during the third century in the village of Patara, in what is now the southern coast of Turkey. He was born of very wealthy ethnic black Anatolians of the ancient Roman Empire. He was one of those ancient and dominant black Muurs of Europe that you only fleetingly come across in today’s western history, because the Gothic Europeans would hide the true Muurish history in Europe.
Nicholas’ wealthy parents, died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young. Being a devout Christian, he followed the words of Jesus to “sell what you own and give the money to the poor.” Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He was made the Bishop of Myra while still a young man.
The high office of Nicholas at such a young age speaks to dominant role played by Muurish black Anatolians and Africans in creating the church as we know it today.It is a historical fact that most of the early and very famous bishops of the church, who lived and gave their lives for the church were either Muurish Africans or Muurish diaspora.
Bishop Nicholas was known throughout the land for his generosity to the those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships. Under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, Bishop Nicholas suffered for his faith, was exiled and imprisoned.
After his release, Nicholas attended the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, where he worked with other early fathers of the church to establish the standardized christian doctrine of today.The passing of the real Santa Claus
He died December 6, AD 343 in Myra and was buried in his cathedral church, where a unique relic, called manna, formed in his grave. The discovery of this liquid substance, which was said to have healing powers, fostered the growth of devotion to Nicholas. The anniversary of his death became a day of celebration, St.
Even before Moss was born, the holiday season had been a civil rights battleground - and Santa Claus played a prominent role. He was there in 1863, midway through the US Civil War, sitting high atop a sleigh stacked with gifts for Union soldiers. One young drummer boy marvels at a wind-up jack-in-the-box toy. An older soldier, stocky and bearded, lifts a stocking filled with treats.
Santa Claus himself dangles a lanky wooden puppet from a string - a figure meant to mock the leader of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, a vocal defender of slavery in the southern states. That image, which appeared on the cover of the national publication Harper’s Weekly, is considered one of the defining moments in the creation of the modern-day Santa Claus.
No longer was Saint Nick a stern, wizened figure. Cartoonist Thomas Nast had reimagined him as a jolly, elven man with a pointy hat and a paunchy belly.
The year the cartoon was published marked a turning point in the Civil War, the bloodiest conflict in US history. That year started with the Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order from Washington, DC, declaring all enslaved people in the Confederacy to be free. It ended with key victories like the Battle of Gettysburg, which stopped the Confederacy’s advance northward, leaving it on the defensive.
