Boy Scout photograph album including a photograph of an African American man named Allen and a Girl Scout poster of rules (Addition 10) 2023-0104, 1917-1930

This addition to MSS 16758, The University of Virginia Collection on the History of Childhood, Parenting, and Family Building, contains two items relating to scouting. The first is a broadside printing of the ten Girl Scout laws set among art nouveau illustrations from the 1930s. The second is a photo album compiled by a boy at Kerrville, Texas, with images of playing in the streets, swimming in the Guadalupe River, playing baseball, hiking, marching,... and being at a local Boy Scout camp. The black cloth photo album contains fifty-two black and white photos, measuring 10 x 7 cm, with a caption on the album leaves.

There is a photograph of an African American man. (Caption reads, "Uncle Allen").

African Americans were often referred to as Uncle or Aunt even though they were not a family relative.They were denied use of courtesy titles.“Aunt,” as in “Aunt Jemima,” was the term used for older enslaved women in the South who were not allowed by their white owners to use the term Mrs or Miss. The same was true for Uncle, as in Uncle Ben’s Converted Rice. Uncle was used for older enslaved men because they were not allowed by their white owners to use the term Mr. The African American in this photograph is referred to as "Uncle Allen." It is important to recognize the use of these terms and confront the racism that is embedded in these white cultural terms.

Source: Green, Mark. Do You Know Why Aunt Jemima is Called “Aunt?” Why is Aunt Jemima racist? Here’s exactly why. And I do mean exactly." Medium. Human Stories and Ideas. Acessed 7/17/2024. https://remakingmanhood.medium.com/do-you-know-why-aunt-jemima-is-called-aunt-5d111b0765a5