"Follow the drinking gourd! Follow the drinking gourd. For the old man is a-waiting for to carry you to freedom If you follow the drinking gourd. When the sun comes back, and the first quail calls, Follow the drinking gourd."
Most people shudder at the sight of a black lawn jockey.
Though sightings are pretty infrequent today, the yard ornaments that portray blacks in subservient roles have the power to gnaw insatiably at the spirit of African-Americans and to disgust others who are unaware of the furtive and noble role these "Jockos" played in the first half of the 19th Century.
But escaping slaves understood then that, like the folk song quoted above, the jockey statue would guide them to the Underground Railroad and to freedom. (In "Follow the Drinking Gourd," the lyrics surreptitiously suggested slaves follow the "drinking gourd," a nickname for the Big Dipper, which pointed to the North Star and the way to freedom. Among other things, it advised that travel was safest in the spring "when the sun comes back.")
The jockey, in a similarly secret way, pointed to safe houses along the Underground Railroad.
"These statues were used as markers on the Underground Railroad throughout the South into Canada," says historian/author Charles Blockson, curator of the Afro-American Collection at Temple University in Philadelphia. "Green ribbons were tied to the arms of the statue to indicate safety; red ribbons meant to keep going.
"People who don't know the history of the jockey have feelings of humiliation and anger when they see the statue," he adds. "But this figure, which was sometimes used in a clandestine nature, and sometimes without the knowledge of the person who owned the statue, was a positive and supportive image to African-Americans on the road to freedom."
Sometimes, adds Blockson, a flag was put into the hand of the statue to indicate safety.
It's because of this role that jockeys--or their precursors, the groomsmen, which were dressed in slave's clothing--have become sought-after collectibles.
Older cast-iron and concrete statues, whether in jockey or slave dress, are difficult to track down today, but they are not impossible to find, says Marchel'le Barber, owner of Martha's Crib, a store in Matteson that deals in African-American collectibles. But you've got to speak up if you want one, she says.
Antiques store owners understandably don't usually display collectibles that portray African-Americans in a negative way. But some do have them, and if you ask, they'll bring them out, says Barber.
That is how she got a 70-year-old jockey at a Chesterton, Ind., antiques store. Barber keeps it in her office as a reminder of African-Americans' survival and perseverance.
"The best way to understand our history and our images is to educate ourselves about it," says Barber, who sells miniature jockey reproductions in her store. "I get some inquiries to help people find the originals . . . from people who know the history of these statues and feel it's important to have it not only as a financial investment but an investment in African-American history."
History lessons can come in surprising forms and places.
In the lobby of Temple University's Sullivan Hall, a groomsman stands sentinel, sometimes taking visitors aback.
"People who come here to the school for the first time don't know how to respond," says Blockson, the statue's owner. He purchased the statue, a 5-foot-tall likeness of an African-American boy dating from the mid-1800s, in a Greenwich Village market in 1984 while writing "Escape from Slavery" for National Geographic magazine. But, adds Blockson, "their look of confusion begins to change when they read the description at its base."
Another groomsman statue makes an unexpected appearance in one of Beverly Jenkins' romance novels, "Indigo" (Avon Books, $5.50). This one leads the main character to freedom and to love when he sees a lantern in its hands.
Jenkins was inspired to link her love story with the Underground Railroad and to include the groomsman statue after reading Blockson's research. "I don't collect the statues," the 46-year-old writer says, "but I believe using African-American history in the backdrop . . . is one way to educate people."
There is no consensus on the statue's origin and several theories are passed around (see sidebar on the cover). But it is known that the jockey's precursor, the groomsman, was born in the Old South. Dressed in clothes that slaves wore, the groomsman later evolved into its jockey image and became a national figure after World War II. "Residents of new housing developments," writes Kenneth W. Goings in his book "Mammy and Uncle Mose" (Indiana University Press, $22.50), "perhaps to give themselves more of a sense of permanence, or perhaps to give themselves more of a sense of being a member of the privileged master class, began placing `Jocko' on their lawns in great numbers."
Jenkins, who lives in rural southeastern Michigan, says she only has to look across the road to see one of the old designs or take a drive through rural America for other sightings.
Blockson says he also spots the jockey statues in parts of America. For him, these sightings are reminders of the path that was taken to escape slavery.
"There's a spirituality about the path that was taken to bring African-Americans to freedom," says Blockson. "When you visit the stops along the way of the Underground Railroad you still feel it. It's there. It's not the kind of thing you can show to somebody. It's the kind of thing you either feel or you don't."
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT GROOMSMEN STATUES
To learn more about groomsman statues and other African-American collectibles, the following articles and books are suggested:
"Black Collectibles Sold in America," by P.J. Gibbs (Collectors Books, $19.95);
"Black Collectibles: Mammy and Her Friends," by Jackie Young (Schiffer Publishing Inc., $14.95);
"Hippocrene Guide to the Underground Railroad," by Charles Blockson (Hippocrene Books, $16.50);
"Images in Black: 150 Years in Black Collectibles," by Douglas Congdon-Martin (Schiffer Publishing Inc., $24.95);
"The `Jocko' Statue" in the Black Ethnic Collectibles 4 journal (Spring 1991 issue); pages 12-13 and 16;
"Mammy and Uncle Mose," by Kenneth W. Goings (Indiana University Press, $22.50);
"More Black Memorabilia," a handbook and price guide, by Jan Lindenberger (Schiffer Publishing Inc., $16.95).
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Another source of information is the Black Memorabilia Collectors' Association, 2482 Devoe Ter., Bronx, N.Y. 10468; call 212-946-1281.
THE LEGEND
While many stories about the black lawn jockey's origin abound, one of the more popular ones has it that George Washington created the first Faithful Groomsman in honor of a frozen slave.
According to historian Kenneth W. Goings in his book "Mammy and Uncle Mose" (Indiana University Press, $22.50), Gen. Washington wanted to mount an attack on a British encampment during the Revolutionary War. Several African-Americansslaves and free menjoined the group.
A young African-American named Tom Graves wanted to fight but Washington said he was too young and asked the boy to hold a lantern for the troops as they crossed the Delaware River, Goings writes.
When the troops returned, instead of finding their horses hitched to a post, the reins were in the hands of Graves, who had frozen to death.
Washington was moved by the boy's dedication, Goings writes, and ordered a statue made in his honor.