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A photo of Judy Garland’s blackface role in 1938’s Everybody Sing recently sparked an online debate. However, many people jumped to the defence of the late actress, who endured a difficult life and was a well-known civil rights advocate.
A photo of The Wizard of Oz star Judy Garland in blackface recently went viral on social media, attracting thousands of comments. Garland was an actress, singer, and dancer, who first came to prominence as a child singer before going on to star in some of the biggest movies between the 1930s-1960s. Some of her biggest roles included A Star Is Born (1954) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) for which she received Oscar nominations.
Judy Garland’s blackface role in 1938’s Everybody Sing resurfaces
In August 2023, a controversial role Garland played 83 years ago came to prominence on social media. A photo of Judy Garland in blackface from the 1938 film Everybody Sing was circulating online, a film she starred a year before her performance in The Wizard of Oz at age 16.
The viral image is a still from the movie, and shows a teenage Garland painted to have darker skin, large white lips and dreadlocks. Garland played Judy Bellaire in the musical comedy, who joins a music show as a blackface singer to escape her dysfunctional family.
“Two movies. A year apart. Same b****,” reads one tweet, which features stills of Garland in The Wizard of Oz and Everybody Sing. “Shoutout to Gen Z for teaching me this.”
The post received over 46 million views, which initially sparked outrage from people seeing the photo for the first time.
People jump to Garland’s defence in wake of blackface photo
However, many netizens jumped to the defence of Judy Garland in light of the blackface photo resurfacing. Readers added context to the original post on Twitter that they thought people ought to know.
The reader-suggested context read: ‘Judy Garland was a minor who had no agency over her decisions and was under a highly abusive management. As an adult in the 1960s, she became a very vocal supporter of The Civil Rights movement.’
Many others also leapt in to defend Garland.
“There is a viral tweet going around that shows Judy Garland in blackface next to a still of her in The Wizard of Oz and it’s like, what is this supposed to prove?” one person posted. “She was a drugged up, abused child actor who later became a civil rights advocate. This info isn’t hard to find.”
‘You think she had any say as a minor or a woman back in the 30s? You think the abusive management she had and her parents would allow her to refuse the role?’ someone else commented.
‘Pleeeeeease take time to understand not only what Hollywood was like but especially what Judy went through’, added another.
The actresses’ difficult life has been incredibly well-documented
Garland’s tumultuous life and personal struggles have been well-documented over the years. Her drug and alcohol addiction started when studio executives demanded she take barbiturates and amphetamines as a teenager to stay thin and energetic. She had a closely-monitored diet as a youngster which was reportedly made up of black coffee, chicken soup and up to 80 cigarettes a day.
Garland has been seen as a tragic figure over the years who suffered from low self-esteem and anxiety. She was also the victim of alleged sexual assault, with Gerald Clarke, author of Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland, saying that she was groped by producer and studio head Louis B. Mayer.
Furthermore, in 2005, Sid Luft, Judy Garland’s ex-husband, had a posthumous memoir published that alleged the child star was continually groped by the actors playing the munchkins on the set of The Wizard of Oz. “They thought they could get away with anything because they were so small,” Luft wrote. “They would make Judy’s life miserable on set by putting their hands under her dress. The men were 40 or more years old.”
According to Carnegie Library, Garland was ‘an empathic icon of marginalized people…a hero to many. Judy’s anguish manifested in her incredible stage presence as well as social activism.’
Before she died of a drug overdose at the age of 47, Garland was an avid supporter of the Civil Rights Movement. She reportedly used her connections to help organize and fundraise alongside Josephine Baker, Sidney Poitier, Lena Horne, Paul Newman, Rita Moreno, and Sammy Davis, Jr.
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