A very long time ago I saw my grandmother throwing out some old cabinet photographs. When I asked her about them she barked at me to mind my own business.

Me being me, I scooped the pictures out of the trash and took them to my grandfather. He didn’t want to talk about them at first, but after I pestered him for a bit he said that these are pictures of my great-great uncle James C Welch and performers from the Emmett Welch Minstrels.

I tried to get more information, but my grandmother wouldn’t talk about it, and my grandfather only knew a little.

The Emmett Welch Minstrels were legendary in Philadelphia and New Jersey as blackface performers, but the dancers in my pictures are all African American. I wish I knew more, but it is cool to have this little window to where I come from.