ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

eminding them he was “sho’ ‘nough white” (16). He willingly worked for time in the
employ of an African American circus proprieter, named only Mr. Williams. In Scotland
Neck, North Carolina, his company discovered the charred corpse of an African
American man chained to a poll, a sign warning all not to touch the body, clearly the
victim of a public lynching. Fearing for their African American workers, the company
stayed on the rented lot until they could safely flee town in the night (227). In another
town where a recent lynching had occurred, Lano successfully fought alongside his
African American partners when the circus was attacked at night.
Yet, even when he describes defending the lives of his partners, he characterizes
them as a culture group. Sometimes he uses negative terms, such as during his
description of the aforementioned battle, when he claims that the “badly frightened
negroes” reduced the effectiveness of their “circus army” (237). But whether positive or
negative, he describes members of the African American race in contrast to white, from
the “knappy headed black man” who drove him to an Atlanta show (84), to an unusually
captivated audience of “peculiar [looking] old mammies” and “simple-hearted male
Negroes” in Shreveport (56).
Most telling are his descriptions of the performance activities of African
Americans, which show a romantic nostalgia for such beauties as “their rich music” (57).
In New Orleans, he worked for, and had a brief flirtation with, a widowed night-club
owner “with a trace of Negro blood” (92). 98 Memphis Kittie booked Lano’s puppet show
as part of an elaborate evening of entertainment. While there, the puppeteer witnessed
several performances by African American artists:
79