African dodger

African dodger (or Hit the Coon or Hit the Nigger Baby) was a carnival game played in the United States, in which an African-American man would stick his head through a canvas curtain, and attempt to dodge objects, such as eggs or baseballs, thrown at him by players.[1] It was popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, despite the obvious brutality of hitting a black person in the head with baseballs. The target often suffered serious injuries.[2][3] The game was played as early as the 1880s and as late as the 1950s.[4][5] Smaller kit-based versions of the game were also sold to be played at home. However, African-Americans continued to be used for similar games, with Popular Mechanics noting in 1910 that "African dodger" had become "too old and commonplace" and was being replaced with dunk tanks in which an African-American would fall into a tank of water when a target was hit with a ball. The illustration accompanying the article shows a game labeled "Drop the Chocolate Drop" and is captioned "Amusing to All but the Victim".[1]

A wooden African Dodger head