Cakewalk
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The cakewalk was a dance developed from the "prize walks" held in the mid-19th century, generally at get-togethers of African Americans on plantations before and after emancipation in the Southern Uni
George Walker, Aida Overton Walker, and Bert Williams link arms and dance the cakewalk in the first Broadway musical to be written and performed by African Americans, In Dahomey.
Painting from 1913
1915 sheet music cover (late for cakewalk music): "Ebony Echoes: A Good Old-Fashioned Cake-Walk" by Dan Walker. New York, NY: Shapiro, Bernstein & Co.
Cakewalk dance, 1896
Charlotte Louise Johnson, known as Lottie Williams and Lottie Thompson, was an American actress, singer, and dancer. A pioneering performer in African-American musical theater, she is best remembered
From left to right, performers Hattie McIntosh, George Walker, Aida Overton Walker, Bert Williams, and Lottie Williams performing the cake walk dance in the 1903 Broadway production of In Dahomey.
Photograph of Lottie Williams published in The New York Age in 1908, the year of her retirement.