Hambone's Meditations

The single-panel comic Hambone's Meditations was a front-page feature in The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal for 52 years, 1916 to 1968. The title character was a stereotypical minstrel black man whose musings about the boss and Miss Lucy and Ol' Tom were rendered in dialect. He was reportedly based on an actual person. The panel was drawn and written by J. P. Alley until his death in 1934 and later by his wife and children. One can detect changes in the character over time; his exaggerated features became less so but the gutbucket wisdom persisted. Alley's son Cal also drew The Ryatts, a syndicated strip about the domestic adventures of a white family. It stood in stark contrast to the other, a study in inequality. Hambone's Meditations was discontinued in November 1968, following pressure from civil rights organizations who argued its depictions and humor were offensive and harmful. It might also be noted Martin Luther King Jr. was shot to death on the balcony of a Memphis motel seven months before the comic was discontinued. Change follows death.