John W. Cooper

[2] Over the course of his lifetime Cooper was a member of the Negro Actors Guild of America, the Colored Vaudeville Benevolent Association, and the International Brotherhood of Ventriloquists.

[citation needed] John W. Cooper began his career in 1886 with the Southern Jubilee Singers, touring parts of New England, Canada, and the Mid-Atlantic States for four years.

The minstrels, an act that got its start in the 1830s before vaudeville and burlesque, typically participated in an overtly racist style of performance known as blackfacing in which the singers and dancers would paint their faces with black cosmetics that mocked African Americans.

After twenty years of performing in clubs, halls, and theaters, Cooper began to tour alone with his dummy named Sam Jackson.

For the rest of his career, he and Sam provided entertainment to children in the homes of wealthy patrons and in the hospitals of New York City.

John W. Cooper, now under the alias Hezikiah Jones, and Sam toured the country with The Major Bowes Original Amateur Hour.

A few years later during World War II, Cooper and Sam independently performed in veterans hospitals as well as in the USO camp shows across the country.

Alongside this, they made appearances at private parties and nightclubs including the well-known Kit-Kat and El Morocco clubs in New York City.

A series of documents and files containing genealogical information as well as letters sent to John W. Cooper during his career are parts of the exhibits.