I attended The Sherlock Holmes You Never Knew: Black American Adaptations, Then and Now presented by Provost Ann McClellan. The event was held in Old Main. I chose this event because quite frankly, I had very minimal knowledge on Sherlock Holmes and absolutely zero on black adaptations of the character. All I knew was that Sherlock Holmes was a fictional character and I saw an ad once for a movie with Robert Downey Jr playing him. I figured that if I was going to attend an event, why not do something that is very new to me, to maximize the learning potential. I had no idea that Sherlock Holmes had this massive cult following, with an exclusive fan club of members from around the world and I wasn’t aware of the rich culture and history, and atrocities revolving around black adaptations of the character. Not only did we learn about Sherlock Holmes and the black culture around it, but we also learned a lot of history involving African American music, Broadway, and other cinema history and terms such as whitewashing and race bending.
What I found very interesting was in the beginning the speaker mentioned a very common theme in the Sherlock Holmes community, “you don’t talk about race in Sherlock Holmes.” Later finding out that Holmes is the most played fictional character of all time, and most of his fandom is predominantly white males from England. I found it very weird that something as silly as a Character playing the role as a detective in an often-comedic setting would be surrounded by so much exclusion and racism. There were even instances when black actors would apply burnt cork to their skin to appear even more “black” to fit a racist, white narrative. In most adaptations they used somewhat off brand names and roles like Shylock “shy” Homestead who was played by Bert Williams the actor who applied the burnt cork to his skin. This play was the first all-black musical on Broadway. There were also very racist titles such as. “The Two Real Coons.” They would also change minor details about the outfits, especially the hat which was famously known for being the major identifier for Sherlock Holmes. On a more positive note, finally in 1986 the elitest group of Sherlock Holmes fans allowed entry to their first black member, Philip Brogdon who lived up until 2021. Brogdon was an actor and writer as well. They even had one of the adaptations casts be invited to Buckingham palace.
The event was very informative and shocking. The speaker was very professional and an expert on the topic. I never would have known about Sherlock Holmes and black adaptations of him if it wasn’t for this. I probably would have gone my entire life without hearing about it. It’s a unique and treasured culture and a great example of perseverance and determination by the black community. If an opportunity comes up to attend this event or something similar, I highly recommend going to it.
