Stephen Magagnini, Sacramento Bee
- Jim Thrasher and his wife were enjoying the California State Fair this weekend until they came upon the Colusa County exhibit.
For the African American couple from Sacramento, the exhibit’s depiction of “Waldo Watermelon Seed” conjured up painful images of the Jim Crow era.
The cartoon-like character was “the standard caricature you’d see from the old days, 50, 60, 70 years ago – black face, buckteeth, bug eyes holding a watermelon,” said Thrasher, 58.
“It brought back memories of my childhood in Ohio where the Klan still marched, when racism was overt, all the name-calling I and my family had to endure,” Thrasher said. “Those kinds of characters were very common, and I’d like to see some sensitivity on the part of the county administration to do something about it.”
