Amos 'n' Andy

Amos 'n' Andy was an American radio situation comedy that ran from March 19, 1928 to November 25, 1960, created, written and voiced by two white performers, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, who portrayed its Black lead characters and the surrounding cast themselves. It began as a nightly fifteen minute serial set first in Chicago and later in Harlem, became one of the most popular programs in the history of American radio, and by the 1943 season had shifted to a weekly half hour situation comedy format. The program is also a documented and enduring example of harm through media caricature. Its white performers voiced Black characters using dialect and comic stereotypes that the NAACP formally protested, stating in 1951 that the show tended to strengthen the belief among prejudiced listeners that Black people were inferior, lazy and dishonest, and an earlier 1931 protest organized by the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper gathered more than 700,000 signatures against the program's portrayals. Both its scale of popularity and the racial harm of its stereotyping are essential, inseparable parts of its historical significance.