ABSTRACT
Community building and moral education of the youth were important functions of storytelling in traditional African societies. This chapter therefore explores African American puppetry centered around schools, libraries, and community centers in the Jim Crow era. Alma Thomas at Shaw Junior High School in Washington D.C., and Eleanor Alice Bourke Robinson at Booker T. Washington in Atlanta organized puppet performances with their students. Pura Belpré established the first Spanish/English bilingual story times in the New York Public Library system and began acting out traditional Afro-Puerto Rican folk tales with puppets.
