Blackface: The Birth of An American StereotypeThe National Museum of African American History and Culture (Washington, D.C.) contextualizes what it means to refer to "blackface" and Jim Crow. "The pervasiveness of stereotypical images like these made the civil rights efforts of African Americans even more difficult. The black people represented here were irresponsible, laughable, and difficult to understand. If white people accepted these stereotypes, it became that much easier to deny African Americans the full rights of citizenship. " website.