The Little Colonel

Originally published on social media on February 15th, 2023

Rather than review this film, let’s explore nuances this film presents about race relations during Reconstruction and the 1930s!

There is a scene where Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and Hattie McDaniel are discussing Shirley Temple’s family in front of her. During this conversation, McDaniel and Bojangles spell out key words that they know Temple does not know in order to protect her from the hard reality…only they spell them incorrectly. Was there illiteracy amongst black populations during Reconstruction? Absolutely, and so the choice the writers made to include this wasn’t necessarily inaccurate. HOWEVER the tone was eerily comedic and revealed the problem of illiteracy without admitting it was a problem. In short, this scene was problematic and shares facts without the truth — a phenomenon that can occur without becoming an oxymoron.

In another scene, Temple and the black children she befriends play a game with a very uncomfortable plot. Temple plays a slave master and the black children pretend to be slaves. This scene reveals the truth that children are like sponges that soak in adult conversations and attitudes, often without comprehension. It’s a tale as old as time, and so the idea of Temple pretending to be a slave master is not too far fetched from Reconstruction reality. What is inaccurate, odd, and problematic to believe is that black children would enjoy pretending to be slaves, especially when their parents just got freed from slavery.

Did you ever notice that Temple and Bojangles hold hands during the famous dance scene? This was 1935, and the idea of America’s white angel holding hands with a black man is ahead of it’s time. I don’t think the filmmakers intended this, but looking at the scene now, there is an irony and a poetic Justice in the idea that racist filmmakers accidentally did something to unite the races and encourage equality. After this film, Bojangles and Temple were in three films together and became Hollywood’s first “interracial couple” as they are sometimes called and lifelong friends. Nothing, not even the racist intentions of 1930s Hollywood, can get in the way of love and friendship.

Happy Black History Month!