Damn, I knew there was a reason I kept it.......I've been fooling myself all these years thinking it reminded me of my grandparents.......and that it was worth quite a bit of the green stuff.....I'm SO ASHAMED, it's going to the dump Saturday, unless any of you racists here want it.....I can't keep it now that I've been enlightened[-( 🤥
How do the African Americans feel about Huck Finn's ni**er Jim?
A lawn jockey is a small statue of a man in jockey clothes, intended to be placed in front yards as hitching posts, similarly to those of footmen bearing lanterns near entrances and gnomes in gardens.
The lawn ornament, popular in certain parts of the United States in years past,[when?] was a cast replica, usually about half-scale or smaller, usually of a man dressed in jockey's clothing and holding up one hand as though taking the reins of a horse. The hand sometimes carries a metal ring (suitable for hitching a horse in the case of solid concrete or iron versions) and in some cases a lantern, which may or may not be operational.
Originally a welcoming symbol to guests and providing to those on horseback with a practical and novel hitching post, later statues eventually became only decorative and not well suited for hitching a horse, often favored by those wishing to evoke an Old South or equestrian ambiance. During the Underground Railroad years in the 19th century they were sometimes used to secretly signal either safety or danger to runaway slaves.
Underground Railroad communication tool
Charles L. Blockson, Curator Emeritus of the Afro-American Collection at Temple University in Philadelphia and author of Hippocrene Guide to the Underground Railroad, claims that the figures were used in the days of the Underground Railroad to guide escaping slaves to freedom: "Green ribbons were tied to the arms of the statue to indicate safety; red ribbons meant to keep going ... People who don’t know the history of the jockey have feelings of humiliation and anger when they see the statue ..
RMAN4443 wrote:
