There was a Jewish family in my hometown growing up that had one that (I’m sure) came with their house. Every year at Christmas, they would dress him up as Santa Claus and have him holding the reins to a herd of [del]reindeer[/del] pink flamingos!
my grandparents cottage had one. The place was built back before 1920, so it was a classic negro jockey. As I vaguely remember it tended to get painted with the silks of whomever won that year at Belmont.
There’s a lawnjockey on our block and he’s black, and it’s at the house of the only black boy on the block. Well, his Mom’s white and his Dad’s black… so he’s just as white as he is black, but I guess if they call Obama the first black president, I suppose it’s not a misnomer.
Don’t know what the story is behind the lawn jockey there, but it interested me the first time I saw it. I was curious- was it embracing black culture, irony, or something? Seems like a sense of humor, or something?
You can typically find many lawn jockey examples at the seasonal traveling antique shows in this area. I’ve only seen the black version at these events. I loudly pointed them out to my mother the first time I encountered them (“CAN YOU BELIEVE THEY’RE SELLING THOSE???”), and was glared at by the booth operator.
Do you know the history of the lawn jockey or their role in the underground railroad?
If you did, you wouldn’t have a pc knee jerk reaction when you see one.
They’re actually not outrageous to sell as a piece of Black Americana. A lot of African-Americans collect stuff like the lawn jockeys or Aunt Jemima figurines. If you saw them at an antique show, they weren’t being sold for exploitation purposes, but for collectible/heritage purposes.
1.) The Underground Railway story falls into that class of Things Too Cute To Be Likely to Be True. My suspicion was instantly raised.
2.) Did you even read the article you cite?
3.) Wikipedia also lnks to this skeptical article:
In short, I think the “pc knee-jerk reaction” is justified.
Nottafinga!
I remember driving down to Clarkton, NC from Raleigh growing up. On Highway 50 between Smithfield and Benson it seemed like every single house had a lawn jockey. My father theorized that some lawn jockey salesman had retired to Aruba recently.
I wonder if they’re still there.
This is funny.
Exactly. 
Yes, I did read the article.
Many historians agree that they were used to identify safe houses and even National Geographic has referenced specific instances of lawn jockeys being used as a signals on the unerground railroad.
Then it seems odd that you would use wikipedia to buttress your argument, when it explicitly says that the use of those statues as Underground Railways markers is dubious.
Could you cite those historians? To me, the story seems highly improbable.
Heh, reminds me of a time I went antiquing in the Niagara area (lots of antique stores there) and I went to a place with many individual booths all selling specialized antiques - and one sold nothing but various types of figurines depicting Blacks.
There were all sorts - some large lawn jockeys, bottles, dolls, and even a chandelier with little Black boy & girl heads on it (very expensive!). Most, but not all, were “stereotype Black”, that is, with exaggerated lips & cartoon-negroid features.
To my eyes it was the most offensive collection I could imagine. I was curious, so I asked the guy tending the booth (who was Black himself) about whether he ever got any negative reactions to his collection. He told me that he generally did not and that the majority of his clients were either Black themselves, or buying for people who were Black, as novelties. Most people were simply amazed that such stuff had been popular at one point, and saw the collection as interesting relics of the past.
http://www.loudounhistory.org/history/underground-railroad-jockey-statues.htm
“These statues were used as markers on the Underground Railroad throughout the South into Canada,” said historian/author Charles Blockson, curator of the Afro-American Collection at Temple University in Philadelphia."
And here is a fun page on the history of faithful groomsman statues from the 1700’s on