Lincoln Perry created the character known as the “Laziest Man in the World,” Stepin Fetchit. After years of performing in the vaudeville “Chitlin Circuit,” Perry got his big Hollywood break in 1927, catapulting him to stardom.
Perry became America’s first Black movie star, but his character, Stepin Fetchit, drew heavy criticism from other Black actors. Fetchit was a mumbling fool. Perry was nothing like his character, but he enjoyed the benefits of playing Fetchit, despite a growing call from Black leaders to stop.
Other notable Black performers like Bill Bojangles Robinson and Ethel Waters urged Perry to stop playing shiftless and ignorant Black men. They believed that by promoting this stereotype, he prevented other Black artists from being offered better roles. He was devaluing Black people.
But unlike his contemporaries, Lincoln Perry didn’t care, allowing studios to promote the racist caricature that he portrayed anyway. Giving the systems that exploit us permission to devalue and define us will not protect us. Perry left Hollywood in 1940 after fighting a losing battle for the same pay and billing as his white co-stars.
Lincoln Perry never used his power to help defy the studio system or take a political stance to help the Black community. His story reminds us never to turn our back on our community, no matter how big the check is.