Sam 'n' Henry

[1][2] Gosden and Correll decided to make their main characters, named Sam Smith and Henry Johnson, Black men who had recently arrived from Alabama during the Great Migration.

This reflected the historical circumstances in Chicago during the 1920s, when millions of Southern Black families moved north in search of opportunity and relief from Jim Crow segregation in the South.

This influx was met with considerable resistance in Northern communities, including Chicago, leading to numerous forms of marginalization for the new arrivals; one expression of this was the often mocking, stereotypical portrayal of African Americans by White performers, a tradition of which Gosden and Correll became prominent examples.

Having been initiated into a colored fraternity called the Jewels of the Crown, they strike up a friendship with the Most Precious Diamond, the high officer of the lodge, who frequently tries to get his hands on the boys' money.

[1][9] On March 31, some two weeks after Amos 'n' Andy premiered on WMAQ, Sam 'n' Henry returned as a 15- to 30-minute program, in which the title characters mostly functioned as announcers for musical performances.