This article examines the politics of race, religion and nation in relation to blackface minstrelsy during the first decades of the twentieth century. Having been superseded by more modern amusements, minstrelsy was outdated as a performance genre, yet the minstrel show served as a forum for Neil O'Brien and the Knights of Columbus fraternal society to participate in the invention of a white American Catholic identity. For fraternal society members, estranged from national belonging by religious difference, these performances situated the group as proponents of an old-fashioned American tradition, structured around anti-blackness. At a time of anti-Catholic sentiment, Catholic fraternal society members gathered for minstrel performances, distancing themselves from black people and marking themselves as white Americans.

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一个严格的美国机构：尼尔奥布莱恩，黑脸吟游诗人，以及白人天主教身份的发明

本文考察了 20 世纪头几十年与黑脸吟游诗人有关的种族、宗教和民族政治。被更现代的娱乐所取代后，吟游诗人作为一种表演类型已经过时，但吟游诗人表演成为尼尔奥布莱恩和哥伦布骑士兄弟会参与创造美国白人天主教身份的论坛。对于因宗教差异而与国家归属感疏远的兄弟社会成员，这些表演将团体定位为老式美国传统的支持者，围绕反黑人构建。在反天主教情绪高涨之际，天主教兄弟会成员聚集在一起进行吟游诗人表演，与黑人保持距离并将自己标记为美国白人。