"The Scottsboro Boys," the controversial John Kander and Fred Ebb musical that had a pre-Broadway run at the Guthrie Theater, has met with pickets in New York.
The show, which has gotten mixed reviews, uses minstrelsy as a framing device to tell the story of a famous miscarriage of justice. Nine young black men were accused of raping two white women in 1930s Alabama, with their cases reaching the Supreme Court and establishing precedents (right to competent counsel and trial by jury of peers).
On Saturday, according to a report in the New York Times, spirited protester picketed the Lyceum Theatre where "Scottsobo" is playing, specifically complaining about the use of minstrelsy, a throwback form that popularized many noxious stereotypes.
